Accession Number
1974.13.1
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 66 x 107.5 cm (26 x 42 5/16 in.) | framed: 77.2 x 118.4 x 6.7 cm (30 3/8 x 46 5/8 x 2 5/8 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Collection of the Zorach Children
Tags
Painting Early Modern (1901–1950) Oil Painting Canvas American
Background & Context
Background Story
Marguerite Zorach (1887-1968) was an American painter known for her Fauvist landscapes and figurative paintings that combine the bold color of the Fauves with the decorative pattern of her later work. Christmas Mail from 1930 depicts a domestic scene of opening Christmas mail in the decorative, patterned manner that distinguishes Zorach's later figurative work. The domestic subject—family opening Christmas mail—reflects Zorach's preference for intimate domestic subjects rendered with the decorative pattern and bold color that make her figurative paintings among the most distinctive in American art between the wars.
Cultural Impact
Christmas Mail is important in Zorach's oeuvre because it demonstrates the decorative, patterned manner that distinguishes her later figurative work from the Fauvist landscapes of her earlier career. The domestic subject of opening Christmas mail allows Zorach to exercise her talent for combining decorative pattern with domestic intimacy, creating a type of figurative painting that is simultaneously decorative and personal—a combination that distinguishes American Modernism at its most intimate.
Why It Matters
Christmas Mail is Zorach's decorative domestic Modernism: a family opening Christmas mail rendered with the bold color and decorative pattern that make her figurative paintings among the most distinctive in American art between the wars. The 1930 painting combines domestic intimacy with decorative pattern in a uniquely personal manner.
