Albert York

Albert York (American, 1928–2009) Ostrich Feathers (Portrait of the Artist's Wife, Virginia Caldwell)

Exhibited

“Albert York: Recent Paintings,” Davis Galleries (now Davis & Langdale Company Inc.), New York, New York, April 28-May 29, 1964, no. 11.
“Albert York,” Davis & Long Company (now Davis & Langdale Company Inc.), New York, New York, February 22-March 22, 1975, no. 15.

Note

The present work will be included in the forthcoming Catalogue Raisonné of the artist's work being compiled by Cecily Langdale, of Davis & Langdale Company, Inc., New York. We wish to thank Cecily Langdale for her kind assistance in cataloguing this lot.

This bold, exquisite portrait is a rare depiction of the artist's wife, Virginia Caldwell. The artist met Caldwell at a party in an artist's loft in 1959. The mother of two children from a previous marriage, she studied at the Sorbonne in Paris as a visiting student from Barnard College, and worked in France at the time of the Marshall Plan. She married York in October 1960, after a preemptive summer honeymoon across France. For most of their lives, York and Caldwell lived in New York, first in an apartment on East 84th Street, later in East Hampton, where Virginia's parents had a house, and finally in Long Island City. The couple lived apart in their late years, York returning to the East Hamton area where he rented a house, while Virginia moved to Philadelphia to be closer to her daughter.

Provenance

The Artist.

Davis Galleries (now Davis & Langdale Company Inc.), New York, New York (Y 28).

Acquired directly from the above.

Private Collection, Reading, Pennsylvania.

Private Estate, Reading, Pennsylvania.