Recto: “1933, Yaddo.” If done at Yaddo, the date should be 1934.
Painted while Slobodkina and Bolotwsky were residents at Yaddo. According to the Tuft’s catalog, they were there in 1934 (p.13). However, various paintings in the master list with Yaddo as their subject are all dated 1933. I think these paintings are dated wrong. The autobiography indicates they were in Yaddo in 1934.
Our original two week stay was graciously extended by another week, and another. We painted feverishly, expecting orders to pack up and march on to come any moment. Ilya went in mostly for slightly abstracted, heavily stylized scenes of nearby Yaddo structures or street scenes which we painted in the nearby town of Saratoga Springs. I loved to paint interiors. My favorites of the period are still the very successful little painting of our odd studio stove, a still life with water lilies and a painting of water lilies floating in our bathtub (Notes for a Biographer, Volume II, p.357).