Johns Doing Numbers

As you might have guessed from the subject, the little 10 x 8 in. Jasper Johns Figure 8 painting that didn’t sell the other day was not part of a ten-painting series, but it was also not a one-off.

I had to wait till I got home to my catalogue raisonné to see that Johns made three or four related works around the same time in 1959.

Jasper Johns, The Figure 8, 1959, 10 x 8 in., via Sotheby’s

There are three 10 x 8 in. number paintings— Figure 0, Figure 8, and Figure 7—and one Figure 4 that is 9 x 6 inches.

a 10 x 8 in. jasper johns painting of a figure 7, mostly black, dark and light grey and white brush strokes that all but obliterate the form of the number 7, but it shows up just enough, via the johns cr
Figure 7, 1959, 10 x 8 in., P67 in the Jasper Johns Catalogue Raisonné

Figure 7, above, is the most similar to The Figure 8, and they’re in the CR next to each other, P67 and P66, respectively. Both sold through Castelli in the fall/winter of 1961. Figure 7 was donated to MIT in 1968, and it was stolen from MIT in 1976. It looks like it was recovered when it turned up at Sotheby’s in 1990. [It was eventually sold in 1994.] I must admit, I do love a good stolen Johns.

a little 10 x 8 inch jasper johns painting of a figure zero in red blue yellow white and black, barely legible amidst the brushstrokes, via johns's cr
Figure 0, 1959, 10 x 8 in., P65 in the Jasper Johns Catalogue Raisonné

Figure 0 (P65 in the CR) is the only little number in color, and it shares a palette with major 1959 paintings like False Start and Device Circle. [For that matter, Figure 7 & Figure 8 share a palette and style with another 1959 work, Shade, which Johns painted on a roller blind refitted with canvas. No idea, though, if this means any of these works were made together.]

a black and white photo of a 1959 jasper johns encaustic and collage painting of a figure 4, very abstract brushwork with the outlines of the 4 kind of peeking through, it has been missing since 1959, perhaps lost in the shuffle of leo castelli's divorce from his wife ileana and her remarriage to michael sonnabend. via the johns catalogue raisonné
Jasper Johns, Figure 4, 1959, 9 x 6 inches, encaustic and collage on canvas, P68 in the CR, whereabouts unknown

But even better than a stolen & recovered Johns is a lost one. Figure 4 is slightly smaller than the others, 9 x 6 inches, and is encaustic and collage, where the others are oil. Castelli’s records show it was acquired by the freshly divorced and remarried Ileana Sonnabend in October 1959, but there’s no trace of it in Sonnabend’s records. Whether that means it went to Paris or stayed in NYC, I cannot tell.

Previously, related: Little Johns