Recto, upper left: R. Motherwell \ 4 Feb 73

Private collection

Arthur and Elaine Cohen, New York, 1974; Janus Gallery, Los Angeles, ca. 1981; Private Collection, Los Angeles, 1981; private collection; [Sotheby’s, New York, May 12, 2016, lot 130, illus.]: private collection, 2016

This work was illustrated with a black-and-white photograph in the 2012 Catalogue Raisonné, where it as noted that the work was “known only through an early black-and-white studio inventory photograph (PH 37-3)” and it was postulated that the work might be the then-missing In Beige with Charcoal No. 3. This postulation was confirmed when the painting came up for auction on May 12, 2016 at Sotheby’s, New York (sale N06501, lot 130, ill.), at which time it was photographed in color.