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"Come Muse Migrate, " Art Deco Study for White House Piano, with Whitman Poem

About the Item

Gorgeously conceived and vividly hued, this study for the lid of the famous grand piano given by the Steinway Company to the White House in 1938, during the Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration, was painted by Dunbar Beck, inspired by a famous poem by Walt Whitman. The painting quotes two lines from Whitman's "Song of the Exposition," later included in "Leaves of Grass": Come Muse migrate from Greece and Ionia, For know a better, fresher, busier sphere, a wide, untried domain awaits, demands you. Beck is best known for his WPA work and his mural painting at the 1939-1940 New York World's fair, but his work with Steinway is equally important, artistically and historically. Beck painted a series of figures along the side of the piano, and generated a series of studies for the piano lid, including this one. The medium is gouache and pencil on heavy paper.

Creator:

Dunbar D. Beck (Painter)

Dimensions:

Height: 14.25 in (36.2 cm)Width: 20.5 in (52.07 cm)Depth: 0.1 in (2.54 mm)

Style:

Art Deco (Of the Period)

Materials and Techniques:

Paint,Painted

Place of Origin:

United States

Period:

1930-1939