a pair of wool needlepoint cushions depicting Two Male Nudes, circa 1940-50 (2)

Estate of the photographer
Acquired by Monroe Wheeler and Glenway Wescott at auction
Gift of Glenway Wescott to the present owners

These vibrant needlepoint cushions, executed in half cross stitch, are in generally excellent condition. Upon extremely close examination a few tiny losses of embroidery are visible on each cushion.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

The needlepoint cushions offered here are among a number of projects in needlepoint executed by the photographer George Platt Lynes.  The pattern design, incorporating two reclining male nudes, was drawn for Platt Lynes by his friend the artist Bernard Perlin.  Perlin, in turn, may have been inspired by an ink and gouache drawing of the reclining Gemini twins by Pavel Tchelitchev, published as one of the signs of the zodiac in Glenway Wescott’s A Calendar of Saints for Unbelievers (Harrison of Paris, 1932).

An enthusiastic stitcher, George Platt Lynes is known to have executed needlepoint compositions for chairs, a daybed, and other objects.  The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin has the needlepoint wedding gift Platt Lynes presented to Dora Maxwell Harrison, his studio assistant, in 1944.  In the Monroe Wheeler Papers in the Yale University Library, there is a small Platt Lynes needlepoint, after Paul Klee, that Platt Lynes gave to Wheeler as a Christmas card.   Platt Lynes’s brother, the author and editor Russell Lynes, was also a needlepointer.   In a House & Garden article in July 1972, Russell Lynes wrote, ‘As we grow up we become more and more confined by patterns of socially acceptable behavior.  But how we spend our leisure does not need to conform to patterns.  What I stitch into a canvas is what I feel like putting there.’

The present needlepoints were originally part a longer needlepoint-covered cushion, used at the headboard of a bed.  At some point in time, George Platt Lynes cut out the mid-section, preserving the pair of cushions offered here.