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Bradley Walker Tomlin

Brooklyn Museum photograph

Object Label

To render the three-dimensional volume of the female form, Bradley Walker Tomlin created delicate tonal modulations by dragging and rubbing a Conté crayon across the textured surface of the paper. Intersecting Cubist planes, lightly sketched on the figure’s lower back, hint at an underlying abstract structure, while accents of watercolor around the figure add a decorative touch.

Best known for his mature Abstract Expressionist paintings, Tomlin destroyed much of his early work, of which Back is a rare surviving example.

Caption

Bradley Walker Tomlin American, 1899–1953. Back, ca. 1925. Conté crayon and watercolor on medium, beige, moderately textured, laid paper paper with watermark, sheet: 11 1/2 × 11 5/16 in. (29.2 × 28.7 cm) frame: 23 × 17 × 2 in. (58.4 × 43.2 × 5.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Frank L. Babbott, 25.520. Orphaned work (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 25.520_PS3.jpg)

Gallery

Not on view

Collection

American Art

Title

Back

Date

ca. 1925

Medium

Conté crayon and watercolor on medium, beige, moderately textured, laid paper paper with watermark

Classification

Watercolor

Dimensions

sheet: 11 1/2 × 11 5/16 in. (29.2 × 28.7 cm) frame: 23 × 17 × 2 in. (58.4 × 43.2 × 5.1 cm)

Signatures

Signed in graphite, lower right: "Tomlin"

Credit Line

Gift of Frank L. Babbott

Accession Number

25.520

Rights

Orphaned work

After diligent research, the Museum is unable to locate contact information for the artist or artist's estate, or there are no known living heirs.Copyright for this work may be controlled by the artist, the artist's estate, or other rights holders. A more detailed analysis of its rights history may, however, place it in the public domain. The Museum does not warrant that the use of this work will not infringe on the rights of third parties. It is your responsibility to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions before copying, transmitting, or making other use of protected items beyond that allowed by "fair use," as such term is understood under the United States Copyright Act. For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.

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