Signed lower right: “Herbert Barnett”. From the estate of the artist. In fine condition.

Painted in Princeton, MA during the summer of 1964. At the time, the artist was working on a monograph on painting for Watson-Guptill, a book project inspired by Norman Kent’s 1960 article on Herbert Barnett in American Artist. While the book was never published, the manuscript has been mined by authors including Charles Movalli and Peter Barnett, the artist’s son, to understand the artist’s compositional and volumetric principles. Illustrations for the intended book included a number of stages of completion for Compote and Blue Pitcher, including charcoal drawing, watercolor, underdrawing, and phases of the final painting.