84

Maurice Sterne

(1878-1957)

Portrait of Mabel Dodge.

Oil on panel, circa 1915.
Signed lower left.
24 x 16 in. (61 x 40.7 cm.)

  • Provenance:
    Collection of Gladys Roosevelt Dick, New York.
    Thence by descent to Jean S. Roosevelt, New York, 1926.
    Private collection, Pennsylvania.
  • Notes:
    Maurice Sterne met Dodge (1879-1962), an artist and wealthy heiress born in Buffalo, New York, while attending a ballet recital in the summer of 1914 or 1915. Sterne, said of her, "The woman I was then to visit puzzled and intrigued me, attracted and repelled me. She was entirely different from the kind of woman I had always been attracted to before... Her most amazing feature was her eyes. They were cool, dark gray pools, shaded with long black lashes. They reflected her complex emotions spontaneously and honestly, could flash up with fury... or glow with rapture." During their summer in Cape Cod in 1915, Sterne completed a series Portraits of Mabel Dodge, which was shown in New York that winter. The two artists, though their relationship rife with conflict, married in Peekskill, New York in 1917, against the advice of their friends and families. Thereafter the couple moved to Taos, New Mexico. In 1918, Sterne moved back to New York and Dodge and her son remained in New Mexico. The two officially divorced in December 1922.

    Gladys Roosevelt Dick (1889-1926) was a cousin of the president Theodore Roosevelt and an avid art collector and painter. After her premature death as a result of a horseback riding accident, her sister Jean S. Roosevelt established a non-profit art gallery in her name, the G.R.D. Studio in New York. The gallery opened on West 55th Street in 1928 and was managed by Kimon Nicolaïdes. The gallery did not charge commissions, and it quickly became a popular work and exhibition space for young artists.
  • Condition:
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March 12, 2026 12:00 PM EDT
New York, NY, US

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