Nude on Sofa

Morris Hirshfield experienced what is possibly the shortest artistic career (nine years) of the twentieth century, but its trajectory was nothing short of meteoric. When health issues forced his retirement at the age of 65 the former slipper designer turned to art and, in 1943, found his art the focus of a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Presented as a "popular painter" of homegrown America art forms, his work was also appreciated as possessing modernist tendencies. In Nude on a Sofa, Hirshfield gives the traditional reclining nude a new lease on life that, in its charmingly fresh presentation, disarms any concerns with sensuality. The cumulative idiosyncrasies of perspective, color, textured surface, and decorative pattern, coalesce into an image that, while imperfect, achieves a visually striking and pleasing result.