An interior view of what is probably Milton Avery’s Manhattan apartment captures his wife Sally and his daughter March at ease in comfortable armchairs beneath an outsized vase of flowers. In 1935, Avery joined the Valentine Gallery, a New York dealership that also handled Henri Matisse. Thereafter, Avery’s arbitrary fields of color took on a brighter saturation. He deployed his non-naturalistic palette to capture a mood – in this case, one of relaxed domesticity. Here, pearly grey and rich wine red are sparked by turquoise, blue, pink, yellow, and scarlet. In his memorial address, artist Mark Rothko observed, “Avery is first a great poet” able to fashion “unheroic” subjects into canvases imbued with “a gripping lyricism” that often achieved “the permanence and monumentality of Egypt.” The painting retains its original frame.