Sam Francis Online Catalogue Raisonné Project
Catalogue Entry
SFF.41 (Francis Archive SFP48-4;SFP48-13; SFP49-8)
Composition
Alternate titles: Painting; Untitled
Oil on canvas
91.5 x 102.3 cm (36 1/16 x 40 5/16 in.)
Artist date designation: Dated as 1948
Inscriptions: Signed and dated in the composition on lower-right recto in brown-black oil paint: Sam Francis 48'
Creation location: [San Francisco Bay Area/Berkeley ?]
Collection: Private collection, Switzerland
Exhibitions
Gimpel Fils Gallery, London, A Selection of East Coast and West Coast American Painters, March 1962. (Exhibition catalogue: Gimpel Fils 1962), no. 7, checklist, no ill.
Gimpel Fils Gallery, London, Collectors Choice XIII, March 23–April 17, 1965. (Exhibition catalogue: Gimpel Fils 1965), no. 11, checklist, no ill.
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, United Kingdom, Sam Francis, Richard Diebenkorn: Two American Painters, Abstract and Figurative, May 8–June 7, 1965. (Exhibition catalogue: Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art 1965), no. 1, checklist, no ill.
Kunsthalle Basel, Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, Switzerland, Sam Francis, April 20–June 3, 1968. (Exhibition catalogue: Schmied 1968); (Exhibition catalogue: Suter-Lang 1968), no. 1, checklist, no ill.
Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe, West Germany, Sam Francis, June 30–August 11, 1968. (Exhibition catalogue: Suter-Lang 1968), no. 1, checklist, no ill.
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Sam Francis, September 13–November 3, 1968. (Exhibition catalogue: Schmied 1968), no. 1, checklist, no ill.
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, Abstract Expressionism: The First and Second Generations in the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, January 19–February 20, 1972. (Exhibition catalogue: Albright-Knox Art Gallery 1972), no. 3, ill. in b/w, p. 36.
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, Sam Francis Paintings 1947–1972, September 11–October 15, 1972. (Exhibition catalogue: Buck 1972), no. 3, ill. in b/w, p. 36, lent by The Prudential Insurance Company of America, Newark, New Jersey. Traveled to: Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., November 1–30, 1972; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, December 10, 1972–January 14, 1973; Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Dallas, February 7–March 18, 1973; Oakland Museum, Oakland, California, June 12–August 5, 1973.
Literature References
Selz, Peter et. al. Sam Francis. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1982, p. 25, ill. in color, pl. 4.
Post-War and Contemporary Art: Morning Session. New York: Christie's, May 12, 2004. Auction catalogue, p. 31, lot no. 122, ill. in color.
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, cat. no. 41, ill. in color on DVD I.
Notes
SFF.41 has been illustrated in varying orientation.
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
Detail of recto with signature and date
Archival Material
Kunsthalle Basel, Basel
1968
Exhibition installation view.
Photo Christian Baur, Basel, © Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland
Albright-Knox Art Gallery
1972–73
Exhibition installation view.
Courtesy Albright-Knox Art Gallery
Record last updated February 20, 2025. 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. "Composition, Dated as 1948 (SFF.41)." In Sam Francis: Online Catalogue Raisonné Project. cr.samfrancisfoundation.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=8387 (accessed on September 19, 2026). [ISBN-13: 978-1-7339663-1-3]
of the artist's oeuvre and will beupdated continuously, sometimes out of chronological order.
Citation: Burchett-Lere, Debra, ed. "Composition, Dated as 1948 (SFF.41)." In Sam Francis: Online Catalogue Raisonné Project. cr.samfrancisfoundation.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=8387 (accessed on September 19, 2026). [ISBN-13: 978-1-7339663-1-3]