Cherbourg 1949
, c. 1999
33 x 31.8 cm (h x w)
Assemblage: wood, brass porthole, glass, and mixed media
© Estate of Alfred Cohen 2020
In this construction, made during Cohen’s final year, he recalled his arrival in Europe exactly 50 years earlier, sailing (with his first wife, Virginia) on the “Queen Elizabeth” in October 1949. It had been a rough crossing, on the tail end of a hurricane and when the British liners stopped first in France, before docking at Southampton, Cohen peered out of the porthole – to be greeted by the tugboat from Cherbourg – his first sight of Europe.
