Three Figures Under a Tree

1917

In this drawing William Zorach abstracted the forms of a large tree and three nude figures into schematized shapes outlined with borders of parallel hatchings. The uniform treatment of humans and landscape points to the harmonious relationship he felt with nature on his annual summer retreats into the countryside. As he recalled of these idylls, “There were no problems . . . no gloomy forebodings, no literary solving of the world’s ills, only a joyous awareness of the world about us.” In addition, this drawing presents a modernist take on the traditional theme of bathers in the landscape.