Portrait of Vartoost 

Arshile Gorky painted this portrait of his sister, Vartoost, using oil on canvas. Born in Armenia, Gorky experienced immense suffering under the Ottoman Empire, including famine and the death of his mother. This portrait of his sister is from a series of idealized images, likely sourced from a family photograph taken before these tragedies. Gorky's artistic path was characterized by a deep engagement with European modernism, as he grappled with identity, memory, and cultural displacement. There is a striking ambiguity to Vartoost's face. Her skin is rendered in tones that seem to oscillate between vitality and a deathly pallor. Her large eyes, though forward-facing, are not engaging with the viewer but cast down and away. This is not a celebratory portrait, but an introspective, and personal, memorial. This image echoes the emotional toll of the Armenian genocide on personal identity. It is a powerful reflection on loss, memory, and the struggle to preserve cultural heritage amidst immense hardship.