UNSIGNED UNTITLED
Over the remaining half decade of his life, Manigault struggled to marshal his mental resources to make art. Despite the daunting obstacles he had to overcome, this was not a period of artistic stagnation or decline; rather, it was one of continued experimental growth. Untitled (Landscape with Trees), one of the artist’s last known paintings, is composed from brushwork carefully organized into patches, a motif likely derived from the art of Paul Cézanne.

Despite such breakthroughs, Manigault was ultimately dissatisfied with many of his late works: according to his widow, he produced during his final years “only two or three of paintings he thought worthy of his signature.” Angered and perhaps intimidated by his inability to make things that satisfied him, the artist destroyed works from all stages of his career. Although the actual number of objects that he destroyed is unknown, it may have amounted to as many as two hundred.

Thinking that a change of environment might be beneficial, he moved from Los Angeles to San Francisco in June 1922. In a desperate attempt to incite his rejuvenation, Manigault turned to asceticism. Striving to attain a higher spiritual realm where he believed he would have access to a new range of colors, Manigault began to fast and meditate. Unfortunately, his physical condition only worsened. On the last day in August of that year, he was pronounced dead due to starvation and neurasthenia.
UNTITLED
1922
private collection