Anatol Shulkin (1899–1961), “A Stone, a Leaf, an Unfound Door,” before 1948

Oil on canvas

26 x 24 in. (66 x 61 cm) (visible)

Inv. no. ab_29914

The title of this painting is taken from the opening paragraph of Thomas Wolfe’s 1929 semi-biographical novel Look Homeward, Angel: A Story of the Buried Life:

“. . . a stone, a leaf, an unfound door; a stone, a leaf, a door. And of all the forgotten faces. Naked and alone we came into exile. In her dark womb we did not know our mother's face; from the prison of her flesh have we come into the unspeakable and incommunicable prison of this earth. Which of us has known his brother? Which of us has looked into his father's heart? Which of us has not remained forever prison-pent? Which of us is not forever a stranger and alone?”

Shulkin strove to evoke such intense feelings suggested by this title. Born in Russia in 1899, he emigrated to the United States at the age of twelve. He studied with the American Realist painter George Bellows at the Art Students League before taking additional classes at the National Academy of Design. He is best known for a series of murals he completed in the 1930s and 1940s under the Works Project Administration. His 1934 mural depicting American life during the Depression once decorated the Barbizon-Plaza Hotel, now the Trump Parc East, at 106 Central Park South. His mural dedicated to the local paper industry in the Post Office in Canajoharie, New York is still extant. After World War II, he turned entirely to easel painting which he showed through the Midtown Galleries and exhibited at various national and regional biennials.

Provenance:

 Collection of the artist

By descent within the family

Exhibited:

Champaign-Urbana, University of Illinois Competitive Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting, 1948, no. 116.