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Untitled

Maker (American, 1903 - 1972)
ClassificationsCOLLAGES
Daten.d.
Mediumon rough side of fiberboard panel: photograph of bust-length female nude with braid, side view, with constellation diagrams in hair, manilla paper border along right and bottom edges, stained blue over-all; verso covered with mailla paper unevenly stained dark blue
Dimensions11 15/16 x 8 15/16 in. (30.3 x 22.7 cm.)
SignedSigned in lower center of verso on text page strip stained blue in black ink: Joseph Cornell
InscribedSigned in lower center of verso on text page strip stained blue in black ink: Joseph Cornell Inscribed in lower center of verso on text page strip stained blue in black ink: photo by HASKiNS Inscribed in upper left of verso in white graphite: Joseph Cornell Inscribed in upper left of verso in black ink: Joseph Cornell
Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Gift of the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation
Copyright© The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation / VAGA, New York
Label TextThroughout his career Cornell worked in series. In the early 1960s he created several collages using photographs of nude pin-ups from magazines, colored blue, and "wearing" diagrams of constellations. He referred to these collages in his diaries as "blue nudes."

Many of Cornell's works feature images of women, and descriptions of waitresses, shopgirls, and "teeners," young women he saw on the streets of Flushing, pepper his diary entries. Cornell's interest in women seemed to be very innocent. The blue color that permeates this image, along with the constellations in the woman's braid, mitigates any overtly erotic context and makes the nude appear to be part of an ideal, heavenly realm.

Status
Not on view
Object number2005.19.6
Terms
    Untitled
    Joseph Cornell
    November 13, 1967
    Object number: 2005.19.7
    Mountain Passes of ......"  (Mountain Passes of Heaven)
    Joseph Cornell
    1965
    Object number: 2005.19.8
    Sculpture of Medardo Rosso: Metamorphosis
    Joseph Cornell
    n.d.
    Object number: 2005.19.4
    Untitled
    Joseph Cornell
    n.d.
    Object number: 2005.19.1
    Untitled
    Joseph Cornell
    n.d.
    Object number: 2005.19.5
    Untitled
    Joseph Cornell
    n.d.
    Object number: 2005.19.2
    Untitled (Laurel?)
    Joseph Cornell
    March 10, 1969
    Object number: 2005.19.3
    Writing Table
    Bernard Molitor
    ca.1788-1796
    Object number: 16.12
    Small Upright Writing Cabinet
    Pierre Roussel
    1760-1770
    Object number: 27.101
    Fall-Front Desk
    Pierre Roussel
    ca. 1760
    Object number: 78.20.63
    Untitled
    Joseph Cornell
    n.d.
    Object number: 2005.19.10
    Untitled
    Joseph Cornell
    n.d.
    Object number: 2005.19.9