{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1069114"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1069114/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2025PD1129/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2025PD1129/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2025PD1129","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PD1128","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PD1130","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1069114","accessionNumber":"P.77-1968","objectType":"Watercolour","titles":[{"title":"Woman Dreaming","type":"assigned by artist"}],"summaryDescription":"Sam Haile (1909-1948) was a British potter and painter associated with the British Surrealist group and the Artists International Association. The painting is dated to 12 July 1940, suggesting an immediacy typical of the Surrealist technique of automatic drawing. At this time, Haile was working in various jobs and teaching positions in New York, having made the crossing from France like many other Surrealists. In this work, the artist visualises the dreams of a reclining female figure in the foreground. In the dream landscape, Haile depicts a reversal of natural laws where crocodiles fly and birds use parachutes to fall to the ground. This subject, and the technique of automatic drawing in which the artist seeks to suppress conscious thought and draw their unconscious ideas and associations, is characteristic of the Surrealists’ concern with the power of dreams and the unconscious mind. Its depiction of menacing airborne creatures reflects collective fears around aerial warfare at this moment in time. Haile’s work was influenced by his anti-war and anti-imperialist politics.","physicalDescription":"Surrealist dream landscape in ink, watercolour and gouache on paper. In the foreground, an abstract female figure reclines, overlooking a precipice. A tower of tessellating shapes emerges from behind the woman, arching over her form. To her right, a white cliff-face can be seen, below which a figure with two heads and two torsos is visible. In the space above, zoo animals including a giraffe, a rodent, a beetle and a crocodile with wings appear to float under a pitched roof. To their left, tentacles emerge from water, splashing. Birds whose wings have become parachutes fall to earth. Inscribed top right ‘Haile 12.Vii.40.’","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Haile, Sam","id":"A2698"},"association":{"text":"artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"ink","id":"AAT15012"},{"text":"watercolour (paint)","id":"AAT15045"},{"text":"gouache","id":"AAT70114"},{"text":"paper (fiber product)","id":"AAT14109"}],"techniques":[{"text":"watercolour painting","id":"THES250889"},{"text":"drawing (image-making)","id":"AAT54196"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Ink, watercolour and gouache on paper. The edges of the paper are uneven, and it has been folded, three quarters of the way down the page.","categories":[{"text":"Watercolours","id":"THES277714"},{"text":"Surrealism","id":"THES285500"}],"styles":[{"text":"Surrealist","id":"AAT21512"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2025PD1129","2025PD1128","2025PD1130"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLE","id":"THES49657"},"free":"","case":"DR","shelf":"142","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"watercolour (painting)","id":"AAT78925"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"United States","id":"x29333"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1940","earliest":"1940-01-01","latest":"1940-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given by Mrs. Marianne Haile, the Artist's widow","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"58.4","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"42.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Taken from <u>Victoria & Albert Museum Department of Prints and Drawings and Department of Paintings Accessions 1968</u> London: HMSO 1969","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"'Haile 12.VII.40'","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Signed and dated"}],"objectHistory":"Gifted by the artist’s widow, Marianne Haile, née de Trey, an artist and potter. Many of her works of pottery are in the V&A’s collection. In the 1930s she was an active member of the Artists International Association (AIA), facilitating collaboration between this group and the Surrealists. \r\nThis painting was exhibited in the first major retrospective of the artist’s work, ‘The Surrealist Paintings and Drawings of Sam Haile’ at the Manchester Institute of Contemporary Art, 1967.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Watercolour, Woman Dreaming, by Sam Haile, ink, watercolour and gouache, 1940.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"<u>Victoria and Albert Museum Department of Prints and Drawings and Department of Paintings Accessions 1968 </u> London: HMSO, 1969"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"The Surrealist Paintings and Drawings of Sam Haile. Manchester: Manchester Institute of Contemporary Art, 1967. No. 38."}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["P.77-1968"],"accessionNumberNum":"77","accessionNumberPrefix":"P","accessionYear":1968,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-06-05","recordCreationDate":"2009-06-30","availableToBook":false}}