Two (2) Homoerotic Silverpoint Drawings by Tchelitchew, ca. 1931.
Silverpoint on paper laid on artist board. Framed.
Two (2) Silverpoint drawings by the Russian-born surrealist Pavel Tchelitchew. From the same sheet. Includes the following:
i. Standing Youth, ca. 1931. Label affixed to the back of the frame in the hand of Glenway Wescott.
ii. Two Boys, ca. 1931. Label affixed to the back of the frame in the hand of Glenway Wescott.
Sheet (Each): 11 3/4 x 3 5/8 in. (29.8 x 9.2 cm.)
Frame (Each): 17 1/6 x 9 7/16 in. (43.3 x 23.9 cm.)
Condition
Nothing adverse to note.
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Alexandra Zaoussailoff (Tchelitchew's sister and founder of the Tchelitchew Foundation), Paris, France;
Collection of Glenway Wescott (the American novelist, poet and essayist), Rosemont, New Jersey, gifted from the above;
Collection of John Stevenson (author and member of a ménage à trois with Monroe Wheeler), gifted from the above;
Property of a Private Manhattan Collection.
Alexandra Zaoussailoff (1907-1971, Tchelitchew's sister and Tchelitchew Foundation); Glenway Wescott (1901-1987, the American novelist, poet and essayist); a gift to John Stevenson in 1971. Stevenson was an author who was in a ménage à trois with Monroe Wheeler (founder of MoMA) and Glenway Wescott.
After his death Tchelitchew's explicit homoerotic art (Tchelitchew's scarcest and most sought after work) was acquired by Wescott from Tchelitchew's sister Alexandra Zaoussailoff, and Wescott arranged for these works to be preserved in the collection of the Kinsey Institute. These drawings were in that group but retained by Wescott and gifted to John Stevenson. It bears Zaossailoff's Tchelitchew Foundation stamp.
The handwritten label on the verso are in the hand of Glenway Wescott and contain his signature, as well as noting that these drawings were in Hay-meadow, Westcott's Rosemont, New Jersey home. Wescott moved into the two-story stone house on his brother's property named Hay-meadows. In 1987, Wescott died of a stroke at his home and was buried in the small farmer's graveyard hidden behind a rock wall. Monroe Wheeler was buried alongside him a year later.