WILL BARNET (1911 - 2012) Study for "The Spider Sewed at Night."
Charcoal and pastel on vellum, 1980s. 1327x1051 mm; 52¼x41⅜ inches. Signed in charcoal, lower right and inscribed "Spider at Night," verso.
Provenance Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Massachusetts (label). Ogunquit Museum of American Art, Maine (label). Babcock Galleries, New York (label). Estate of the artist.
Exhibited "Will Barnet in Provincetown," Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Massachusetts, August 19-October 23, 2011. "The Art of Will Barnet," Ogunquit Museum of Art, Maine, June 21-August 12, 2012.
The present work is a study for Barnet's 1989 oil on canvas of the same name, illustrating Emily Dickinson's poem, A Spider Sewed at Night. Dickinson's poem describes a nocturnal solitary spider spinning a web, exploring themes of fragility, introspection, and mysteries found in nature, including death. Barnet's illustrations for the poems of Dickinson were published in the anthology The World in a Frame by George Braziller in 1989.
