Zinnias, 1932

Provenance

Sale, Millea Bros Ltd, Boonton, New Jersey, December 5, 2024, lot 2022
IBM Corporate Collection, Armonk, New York, until 2024
Private collection, New York, New York

Related Works

Zinnias, oil on canvas, 30⅛ × 25 inches, signed lower left: H. Dudley Murphy; Yale University Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut
Roses in a Vase, 1927, watercolor, signed lower left: H. Dudley Murphy; The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland

Note

This painting retains its original hand-carved frame, conceived by Murphy and executed by the Italian-born artisan Feliciano Nemiccolo (1899–1968). Murphy began his artistic career as a framer, founding and directing the Carrig-Rohane Frame Shop, a practice that informed his meticulous approach to composition and detail. In 1917, he turned his focus entirely to painting, while the workshop continued under the stewardship of Vose Galleries.

Murphy later taught at Harvard University from 1931 to 1937, a period during which he concentrated on still life painting. Earlier in his career, his association with James McNeill Whistler proved formative, particularly in shaping his understanding of the frame as an integral component of pictorial composition.

The compositional clarity and formal restraint evident in Zinnas reflect this background in carving and gilding. The painting’s subject extends beyond the floral arrangement to encompass a carefully rendered ensemble of objects, including a vase, teacup, and carved Chinese stand, all set before a richly ornamented wall covering featuring gilded chrysanthemums and crenellated geometric motifs. This decorative backdrop may well draw inspiration from the elaborate East Asian screens held in the collections of the Harvard Art Museums, underscoring Murphy’s engagement with both material culture and display. Still lifes like Zinnias remain little known, largely because they were quickly purchased upon completion and have rarely resurfaced on the market.