Honoré Sharrer (1920–2009)

HONORÉ SHARRER (1920–2009)
Soldier, Wife, and Child, about 1949–51
Oil on Masonite, 26 1/8 x 27 1/4 in.

EXHIBITED: Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio; The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia; Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts, February 2017–January 2018, A Dangerous Woman: Subversion and Surrealism in the Art of Honoré Sharrer, p. 95 plate 2 illus. in color // Hirschl & Adler Modern, New York, April 25–June 7, 2019, Honoré Sharrer: Claws Sheathed in Velvet, no. 1

EX COLL.: the artist; to her estate, until the present

In Soldier, Wife, and Child Honoré Sharrer recapitulates a vignette from her 1943 work, Workers and Paintings, reproducing the nuclear family of mother, father and baby that appear second from the left in the original painting. There is a critical difference, though, in the present work. The 1943 father figure, an industrial worker, has been repositioned and replaced. In 1951 he is a young soldier of uncertain status, but undoubtedly, with blood stigmata dripping from both corners of his mouth, the worse for wear.