Wayne Thiebaud, Confections (detail), 1962. Oil on canvas, 16 x 20 in. (40.6 x 50.8 cm). San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Gift of Byron R. Meyer. © 2025 Wayne Thiebaud Foundation / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY. Photograph by Katherine Du Tiel
One of the most important aspects of Wayne Thiebaud’s art practice was his passionate engagement with art history. A self-described art “thief,” Thiebaud openly drew ideas from and reinterpreted works by others. Some appropriations are more apparent, referencing subjects or poses, while others are more subtle, capturing qualities like mood or meaning. Showcasing Thiebaud’s deep appreciation for his fellow artists past and present, these reinterpretations reveal his perception that the entire history of art was as relevant and inspiring as the most contemporary art.
Spanning decades and genres, here are five of Thiebaud’s reinterpretations, alongside each work’s art historical inspiration:
1. The Dead Toreador + Supine Woman
Edouard Manet, The Dead Toreador, probably 1864. Oil on canvas, 29 7/8 × 60 3/8 in. (75.9 × 153.3 cm). National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, Widener Collection, 1942.9.40
Wayne Thiebaud, Supine Woman, 1963. Oil on canvas, 35.9 x 72 in. (91.4 x 182.9 cm). Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2009.17 ©️ 2025 Wayne Thiebaud Foundation / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
Thiebaud’s Supine Woman (1963) pays overt homage to French modernist painter Edouard Manet’s The Dead Toreador (1864). Though Thiebaud’s subject is his 18-year-old daughter Twinka, and Manet’s is a bullfighter killed mid-fight, both paintings contain the same radical and slightly disturbing perspective, corporeality, and ambiguous ground plane.
I’m very influenced by the tradition of painting and not at all self-conscious about identifying my influences such as that or any other. I think sometimes it’s very conscious at the beginning, and sometimes it occurs to me in the middle or sometimes when I’m through with it. Sometimes I’m all the way through with it, and someone will point out, ‘Well, that looks like Manet’s bullfighter pose,’ and I hadn’t even thought of it until then.
Wayne Thiebaud
2. Still Life + Confections
Giorgio Morandi, Still Life, 1941. Oil on canvas, 17 3/4 × 18 1/2 in. (45 × 47 cm). Private collection. Courtesy of Galleria d’Arte Maggiore, Bologna, Italy. © 2025 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SIAE, Rome. © DeA Picture Library / Art Resource, NY
Wayne Thiebaud, Confections, 1962. Oil on canvas, 16 x 20 in. (40.6 x 50.8 cm). San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Gift of Byron R. Meyer. © 2025 Wayne Thiebaud Foundation / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY. Photograph by Katherine Du Tiel
Thiebaud cited Giorgio Morandi as the greatest influence on his still lifes. Confections (1962), inspired by Morandi’s Still Life (1941), is one clear tribute to the Italian painter. The two still lifes share nearly identical compositions of three aligned and taller objects, while a fourth, shorter object is isolated at the front right.
I admired [Morandi] so much I put a reproduction of his up on the easel adjoining my own. . . . One of the things he does which is so fascinating is his sense of compression in paint. You’ll notice that most of his things are centered. But if you look carefully there’s not enough room for those objects to exist, there’s vice-like pressure on them. So that builds that tension, a marvelous kind of a feel, involving you physically in the work. That physical empathy transfer is one of the most important aspects of enjoying painting.
Wayne Thiebaud
3. Black White + Diagonal Ridge
Ellsworth Kelly, Black White, 1968. Oil on two joined panels, 96 × 96 in. (243.8 × 243.8 cm). Glenstone, Potomac, Maryland © Ellsworth Kelly Foundation. Courtesy of Glenstone Museum. Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Thiebaud, Diagonal Ridge, 1968. Acrylic on canvas, 77 3/4 x 84 in. (197.5 x 213.3 cm). Private collection. © 2025 Wayne Thiebaud Foundation / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY. Courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Photograph by Randy Dodson
Not only did Thiebaud draw from the old masters, he also engaged with, and commented on, newer art. He painted Diagonal Ridge in the same year that Ellsworth Kelly painted Black White (1968). Observing that all painting is inherently abstract, even — or especially — when inspired by a real-world subject, Thiebaud challenged the lines drawn by the art world between abstraction and representation.
I’m just essentially a traditional representational painter, and by that I mean, always interested in imagery, trying to make a representational painting that has as much abstraction as seems to fit that particular mode of representation.
Wayne Thiebaud
4. Ocean Park #30 + Day Streets
Richard Diebenkorn, Ocean Park #30, 1970. Oil on canvas, 100 x 82 in. (254 x 208.3 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Bequest of Miss Adelaide Milton de Groot, by exchange, 1972, 1972.126. © 2025 Richard Diebenkorn Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Wayne Thiebaud, Day Streets, 1996. Oil on canvas, 59 3/4 x 48 in. (151.8 x 121.9 cm). Collection of the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri, Bebe and Crosby Kemper Collection, Gift of the Willian T. Kemper Charitable Trust, UMB Bank, n.a., Trustee, and the R. C. Kemper Charitable Trust, 1996.69.01. © 2025 Wayne Thiebaud Foundation / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
Thiebaud cited American painter and friend Richard Diebenkorn as the greatest influence on his city paintings. Like Diebenkorn’s Ocean Park #30 (1970), Thiebaud’s Day Streets (1996) is divided into rectilinear blocks that are crossed and connected by strong diagonals.
Diebenkorn tends to have in his work what Proust says about memory. You don’t quite know where everything comes from. In the Ocean Park series, for instance. But, if you go down, see his studio, walk along the beach and see the ocean, concrete bunkers, freeways, even a little transom window you look out of — he gets that into his work. He takes something and essentializes it in an oblique way.
Wayne Thiebaud
5. Bridal Veil Falls, Yosemite + Blue Ridge Mountain
Follower of Thomas Hill, Bridal Veil Falls, Yosemite, ca. 1900. Oil on canvas, 23 3/8 × 20 1/4 in. (59.4 × 51.4 cm). Collection of the Wayne Thiebaud Foundation. Courtesy of the Wayne Thiebaud Foundation. Michael Trask Photography
Wayne Thiebaud, Blue Ridge Mountain, 2010. Oil on canvas, 48 1/8 x 35 7/8 in. (122.2 x 91.1 cm). Collection of the Wayne Thiebaud Foundation. © 2025 Wayne Thiebaud Foundation / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY. Courtesy of the Wayne Thiebaud Foundation. Michael Trask Photography
In addition to painting portraits, still lifes, and cityscapes, Thiebaud also tackled mountains and landscapes. In a thrift store in Sacramento, Thiebaud purchased a view of Yosemite’s Bridal Veil Falls. He then emulated the work in his painting Blue Ridge Mountain (2010), capturing the same sense of plunging, vertical perspective.
I used to kick around junk stores and antique shops in Sacramento. One day I came upon a little landscape painting. I thought to myself, ‘By golly, this looks like a Thomas Hill.’ So, I bought it. And, I’ve learned more from that little painting than nearly anything else I’ve come across in my long life.
Wayne Thiebaud
