#gerald murphy

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Gerald Murphy

1. Figure 10. Portrait, (destroyed)

2. Figure 8. Turbines, 1922 (lost)

3. Figure 9. Boatdeck, 1923 (installation photo at the Salon des Independants,) 1924  (lost)

Gerald Murphy produced 14 paintings between the years of 1922 and 1929 that received critical acclaim and won the praise of some of the finest artists in the 20th century. Nearly 100 years later, art historians consider Murphy’s paintings to be seminal American art for the period, and praise for his work is nearly universal. 

January 31, 1937

Dearest Gerald and Sara:

The telegram came today and the whole afternoon was so sad with thoughts of you and the happy times we had once. Another link binding you to life is broken and with such insensate cruelty that it is hard to say which of the two blows was conceived with more malice. I can see the silence in which you hover now after this seven years of struggle and it would take words like Lincoln's in his letter to the mother who had lost four sons in the war to write you anything fitting at the moment. The sympathy you will get will be what you have had from each other already and for a long, long time you will be inconsolable.

But I can see another generation growing up around Honoria and an eventual peace somewhere, an occasional port of call as we all sail deathward. Fate can't have any more arrows in its quiver for you that will wound like these. Who was it said that it was astounding how deepest griefs can change in time to a sort of joy? The golden bowl is broken indeed but it was golden; nothing can ever take those boys away from you now.

Scott