Abraham Walkowitz
Isadora Duncan

Isadora Duncan
Isadora Duncan
ArtistAmerican, born Russia, 1878–1965
CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Isadora Duncan
Datec. 1920
MediumWatercolor and ink on cream wove paper
DimensionsSheet: 8 7/8 x 5 1/8 in. (22.5 x 13 cm)
Frame: 14 3/4 × 12 1/4 in. (37.5 × 31.1 cm)
Credit LineThe Alice C. Simkins Collection, gift of Alice C. Simkins and museum purchase funded by Alison de Lima Greene
Object number2016.317
Non exposé

Explore Further

Description

Abraham Walkowitz produced some five thousand drawings of Isadora Duncan over a period of twenty years. He explained, “She was a Muse. She had no laws. She didn’t dance according to rules. She created. Her body was music.”

Typical of Walkowitz’s on-going series, "Isadora Duncan" captures the essence of the dancer’s strong physical presence and the grace of her flowing drapery with a few essential marks. When Duncan saw an exhibition of this series in 1916, she remarked: “Walkowitz, you have written my biography in lines without words.”


ProvenanceThe artist; […]; [Zabriskie Gallery, New York]; The Alice C. Simkins Collection, San Antonio, November 6, 1992; to MFAH, 2016
Exhibition History"Collectors’ Gallery XXVI," Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX, November 8–December 24, 1992.

“American Modern: Works from the Collection of Alice C. Simkins,” The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, April 15–July 19, 2015.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Recto: Signed in ink, bottom right corner: A. Walkowitz [cursive]
Verso: [inaccessible]
Recto: Signed in ink, bottom right corner: A. Walkowitz [cursive]
Verso: [inaccessible]
Recto: [none]
Verso: [inaccessible]

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

If you have questions about this work of art or the MFAH Online Collection please contact us.

Abstraction
Abraham Walkowitz
1932
Brush and ink on wove paper
2016.58
Overall recto, cropped.
Charles Percier
1786–1791
Watercolor and pen and ink with incising, pricking, and graphite on cream wove paper
2023.470
The Gateway to a Town
Abraham Bloemaert
c. 1630
Pen and brown ink heightened with watercolor on laid paper
74.254
Looking Towards Inveraray Castle, Loch Fyne, Argyll
William Callow
September 27, 1849
Watercolor over graphite on cream wove paper
2023.501
Tomb of John of Eltham, Earl of Cornwall, Chapel of St. Edmund, Westminster Abbey, London
Thomas Shotter Boys
c. 1850
Watercolor over graphite, heightened with gouache and gum glaze, on cream wove paper
2023.500
View of Vietri and Raito, Italy
John Robert Cozens
c. 1783
Watercolor over graphite on cream laid paper
2017.283
Alfred Thompson Bricher
c. 1899
2021.171.1,.3,.4,.5,.6: Watercolor on wove paper 2021.171.2: Watercolor with pen and ink on wove paper
2021.171.1-.6
Village Scene near Rotterdam
Kees van Dongen
c. 1897–1898
Black chalk on cream wove paper
2013.597
Portrait of the architect Alexandre Bénard, full-length, with fragments of classical capitals, the Roman Forum beyond
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
1818
Graphite heightened with bodycolor on cream wove paper
2014.144
Four works by John Constable
John Constable
1833–1835
2022.81-.83: Graphite and watercolor on wove paper 2022.84: Pen and ink on wove paper
2022.81-.84
Langdale Pikes from Windermere
John White Abbott
July 11, 1791
Watercolor and pen and ink with graphite on wove paper on artist’s wove paper mount with wash-line border
2018.234
The Dream of Sardanapalus
Ford Madox Brown
1869
Black chalk, black and brown ink, iron gall ink, gray and brown wash with watercolor on wove paper
2015.282