Accession Number
1957/1.107

Title
Horse Resting (Le Cheval à la Couché)

Artist(s)
Marino Marini

Artist Nationality
Italian (culture or style)

Object Creation Date
1955

Medium & Support
lithograph on paper

Dimensions
19 13/16 in x 26 in (50.4 cm x 66 cm);22 1/16 in x 28 1/16 in (56.04 cm x 71.28 cm);19 13/16 in x 26 in (50.4 cm x 66 cm);13 1/16 in x 22 in (33.2 cm x 55.9 cm)

Credit Line
Museum Purchase

Subject matter
Created after Marini returned to Milan after WWII, this print depicts his premier subject matter: the horse. Marini cultivated this theme during the time he spent in his wife's native Switzerland during the Second World War. The theme both represents a return to art historical motifs and a look forward. Here, the majestic horse is made immobile, laying on the ground with its leg bent, helplessly backward. Its body is depicted through a simplified series of lines, yet the form is exagerated by the larger blue shape. Though he was primarily known as a sculptor, Marini worked extensively in two-dimensions, especially color lithograph. These two-dimensional works were not merely sculptural studies or secondary works but an active part of his practice in investigating different ways to present modernist form.

Physical Description
This colored lithograph has a large, bright blue shape at the center, completely surrounded by black. Within the blue shape, there is a white design of a horse laying down. The print is signed in red crayon (l.r.) "MARINO" and numbered in red crayon (l.l.) "38/50".

Primary Object Classification
Print

Collection Area
Modern and Contemporary

Rights
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Keywords
Equus caballus (species)
Italian (culture or style)
Modernist
abstraction
horses
modern and contemporary art