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Medium: Egg tempera »
SFF.5 (Francis Archive SFP46-2)
The Secret Room
Egg tempera on Masonite panel
55.88 x 71.12 cm (22 x 28 in.)
Artist date designation: Dated as 1946
Inscriptions: Signed and dated on lower-right recto in green paint: Sam Francis '46'
Additional notations: Stamped on panel verso with the Sam Francis Estate logo and facsimile signature stamps
Creation location: San Francisco
Collection: Gallery Delaive, Amsterdam
Exhibitions
1946 San Francisco Museum of Art
San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, Sixty-Sixth Annual Exhibition of the San Francisco Art Association: Oil, Tempera and Sculpture, October 10–November 3, 1946. (Exhibition catalogue: McCann Morley 1946), no. 44, no ill.
1949 Los Angeles County Museum of Art and traveling
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, New Works by Bay Region Artists, June 20–July 25, 1949. Traveled to: San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, August 2–September 11, 1949; Stanford Art Gallery, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, September 27–October 1949.
2013–14 Pasadena Museum of California Art and traveling
Pasadena Museum of California Art, Pasadena, California, Sam Francis: Five Decades of Abstract Expressionism from California Collections, August 11, 2013–January 5, 2014. (Exhibition catalogue: Burchett-Lere and Selz 2013–2014), no. 6, ill. in color, p. 49. Traveled to: Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California, January 26–April 20, 2014.
2015–16 Bechtler Museum of Modern Art
Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, Charlotte, North Carolina, Sam Francis: Rapid Fluid Indivisible Vision, September 18, 2015–March 7, 2016. (Exhibition brochure: Edwards 2015).
Literature References
Tono 1964
Tono, Yoshiaki. "Firing “Blue” on Japan: Sam Francis." Geijutsu Shincho (Tokyo), no. 7 (July 1964), p. 40, ill. in b/w.
Burchett-Lere and Agee 2011
Burchett-Lere, Debra, ed. Sam Francis: Catalogue Raisonné of Canvas and Panel Paintings, 1946–1994. Berkeley, California: University of California Press and Sam Francis Foundation, 2011, p. 9, ill. in color; fig. 5, cat. no. 5, ill. in color on DVD I.
Burchett-Lere and Zebala 2019
Burchett-Lere, Debra and Aneta Zebala. Sam Francis: The Artists' Materials. Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2019, p. 14, ill. in color, fig. 1.2, p. 120, Appendix I.
Notes

Notated by unknown inscriber on the strainer verso: #38 Box 4

The artwork was part of the Sam Francis Estate as of 1994 and stamped on verso with the Sam Francis Estate logo and facsimile signature stamps. 

This painting is included in the Getty Conservation Institute, Los Angeles, Getty publications February 2019 release. Authored by Debra Burchett-Lere and Aneta Zebala, the book (Sam Francis: The Artist's Materials) focuses on Francis's paint materials and methods over the decades. 

For SFF.5, the summary of the analyzed paint samples and data in the Appendix I of Sam Francis: The Artist's Materials lists egg, protein, traces of pine resin, metal soap and other not tested binding media. There are more than twelve pigments listed as sampled including cadium red, cobalt blue, lead chromate, iron oxide, carbon black, zinc yellow, viridian, barium sulfate, and lead chromate. 

Portions of this entry are from Sam Francis: Catalogue Raisonné of Canvas and Panel Paintings, 1946–1994. Published by the Regents of the University of California/University of California Press (2011). Reproduced with permission.

Additional images
The Secret Room, Artist date designation: Dated as 1946 (SFF.5). Detail of signature and date on recto
Detail of signature and date on recto
Archival Material
Fort Miley hospital
ca. 1946
Sam Francis on balcony at Fort Miley hospital, San Francisco
Pasadena Museum California Art
2013
Photo © Don Milici, Pasadena, California
Crocker Art Museum
2014
Photo © Jesse Bravo, Sacramento, California
Crocker Art Museum
2014
Photo © Jesse Bravo, Sacramento, California
Bechtler Museum of Modern Art
2015–16
Courtesy Bechtler Museum of Modern Art
Record last updated November 29, 2022. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Current catalogue view includes a section of unique works on paper, canvas and panel paintings, limited editions, sculpture and ephemeral pieces
of the artist's oeuvre and will beupdated continuously, sometimes out of chronological order.

Citation: Burchett-Lere, Debra, ed. "The Secret Room, Dated as 1946 (SFF.5)." In Sam Francis: Online Catalogue Raisonné Project. cr.samfrancisfoundation.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=1728 (accessed on August 15, 2026). [ISBN-13: 978-1-7339663-1-3]