“Every picture tells a story,” so the saying goes. This week’s highlight from AN INTIMATE VIEW: Small Paintings & Drawings by Ben Solowey, has a story to tell as to why it has not been on view for 13 years at the Studio.
It is a lovely pastel that dates from the last decade of Ben’s career. The zinnias almost certainly came from Ben’s garden right outside his studio. The green glass is still here and played a role in many still lifes over the years. Despite his advanced age, Ben never stopped experimenting as evidenced by the loose gesture that gives the piece an almost action painting background. Ben handcrafted the frame and used small punch decorations in the corners.
We exhibited the work only once in 1996 as part of a joint show with Ben’s contemporary, William A. Smith, of their works on paper. During the exhibition’s run Kitty Carlisle Hart came to visit. Studio director, David Leopold, was working with the James A. Michener Art Museum on the installation, “Creative Bucks County,” which featured a special section on Kitty’s husband, Moss Hart, and another on the collaboration of Hart and George S. Kaufman.
It was Kitty’s first visit to the Studio and she loved it and the works on the walls. She was particularly enchanted with this work and an oil, “A White Still Life.”
David and Kitty got to know each other better and she insisted that he accompany the fine arts handlers who came to her spacious Manhattan apartment soon thereafter to pick up items she had agreed to lend to the Museum for the first two years of the installation.
As the handlers started to wrap each piece, Kitty began to have second thoughts about lending a small Early American Folk painting that was only remaining part of a collection of such work that hung in the Harts’ Bucks County estate.
First she claimed the work was too valuable to lend, then she said her decor would be missing a beautiful work. Thinking on his feet, David offered a solution: would Kitty be willing to hang a Solowey work in its stead for the duration of the loan?
She agreed, and the following week David brought the two works Kitty liked to her home. She was not able to decide which piece she liked more, so David agreed to lend her both.
Kitty and David remained friendly and he allowed her to hold onto the works long after her items were returned. Kitty passed away in her bed in April 2007 under “A White Still Life” and she kept this pastel near her favorite place in her living room: the piano.
Top: White Zinnias in Green Glass. Pastel on board, n.d. 16 x 12 in.
