Recto not signed, not dated
Verso: R. Motherwell \ 1987

Private Collection

Dedalus Foundation, 1991; private collection, 2002

This work was begun in 1987 and later served as a source for the large painting The Grand Inquisitor (P1182). An early version of this small study, painted on a red ground, was sent to Knoedler & Company and photographed in April 1988. After it was returned to Motherwell that May, he adjusted the central forms and repainted the ground yellow. This version was exhibited at Knoedler & Company in April 1989. Sometime after the work was returned to him in October of that year, Motherwell reworked the canvas again by painting over much of the yellow ground with red paint.
The illustration in the catalogue raisonné showed the penultimate version of this painting.