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Grace Hartigan Greek Girl 1953 oil on canvas Walker Art Center, Minneapolis |
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Grace Hartigan Interior with Mexican Doll 1955 oil on canvas North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh |
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Grace Hartigan The Vendor #3 1956 collage and mixed pigments on paper Art Institute of Chicago |
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Grace Hartigan Chinatown 1956 oil on canvas Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC |
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Grace Hartigan Ireland 1958 oil on canvas Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice |
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Grace Hartigan Study for Essex and Hester 1958 gouache and collage on board Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC |
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Grace Hartigan Dido 1960 oil on canvas McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas |
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Grace Hartigan Pallas Athena: Earth 1961 oil on canvas Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC |
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Grace Hartigan Pallas Athena 1961 lithograph Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC |
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Grace Hartigan Variations I on Clark's Cove 1962 oil and collage on paper Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC |
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Grace Hartigan Frank O'Hara, 1926-1966 1966 oil on canvas Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC |
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Grace Hartigan Modern Cycle 1967 oil on canvas Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC |
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Grace Hartigan Ravencrest 1969 oil on canvas Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia |
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Grace Hartigan Inclement Weather 1970 oil on canvas Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC |
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Grace Hartigan The Far-Away Places 1974 oil on canvas McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas |
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Grace Hartigan Don Quixote and Madame Butterfly 1986 oil on canvas Portland Museum of Art, Maine |
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Grace Hartigan Little Junk Shop 1993 oil on canvas Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Tennessee |
from Chimes for Yahya
Another memory of Mademoiselle.
We're in a Pullman going South for Christmas,
She in the lower birth, I in the upper
As befits whatever station we pass through.
Lanterns finger our compartment walls.
At one stop, slipping down into her dream
I lift the blind an inch. Outside, some blanketed
Black figures form a crèche, part king,
Part shepherd and part donkey, stamp and steam
Gliding from sight as rapturous bells ring.
Mummy and Daddy have gone ahead by sleigh,
Packard piled with gifts I know too well.
Packard piled with gifts I know too well.
Night after autumn night, Mademoiselle
Yielding to endearments, bringing down
From the attic, lion by tiger, acrobat by clown,
Tamer with her little whips and hoops,
The very circus of my wildest hopes,
I've seen it, memorized it all. Choo-choo
Goes the train towards the déjà-vu.
Christmas morning, in a Mandarin suit –
Pigtail and fan, and pipe already staled
By the imaginary stuff inhaled –
I mimed astonishment, and who was fooled?
The treasures lay outspread beneath the tree.
Pitiful, its delusive novelty:
A present far behind me, in a sense.
And this has been a problem ever since.
– James Merrill (1976)