Mermaid
Medium: Lithograph in colors on Arches 88 paper
Year: 1978
Sheet: 25 x 26 1/8 inches (63.5 x 66.4 cm)
Edition: 60
Printer’s Proofs: 10
Publisher: Gemini G.E.L., Los Angeles
Literature: Corlett 158
Roy Lichtenstein Catalogue Raisonne: RLCR 2741
Mermaid, 1978 (RLCR 2741) | Catalogue entry | Roy Lichtenstein: A Catalogue Raisonné
Signed, dated and numbered in pencil with the publisher’s blindstamps and ink stamp on the reverse
This print was created in conjunction with Lichtenstein’s commissioned public sculpture project, RLCR 2789, Mermaid (1979; concrete, steel, polyurethane paint, water, and palm tree) for the Miami Beach Theater of the Performing Arts. The print image echoes that of the sculpture and was created to help fund the sculpture project.
Mermaid adopts the concrete of Art Deco Miami Beach for a surrealist Henry Moore/ Barbara Hepworth-type perforated reclining nude sculpture floating weightlessly on concrete waves leaping from a little pool. Its own light rays oddly hold up the steel bright sun. Materials are transformed by color and pattern in celebration of sea, sand and sun plus a mythical temptress of the deep blue sea shaded by a living palm.
Lichtenstein created this image in the same way he worked the plates for the Surrealist series, here using Spectracolor pencil on the aluminum plates and Spectracolor pencil and tusche on the stone.
Auction Results
Works from the Collection of Dorothy and Roy Lichtenstein
Sotheby’s New-York: 26 September 2025
Estimated: USD 8,000 – 12,000
USD 69,850
AUCTION RECORD FOR MERMAID
ROY LICHTENSTEIN (1923 – 1997)
Mermaid (Corlett 158), 1978
Lithograph printed in colors on Arches 88 wove paper
Signed, dated ’78 and inscribed AP V (lower right)
One of 10 artist’s proofs in Roman numerals aside from the numbered edition of 60 in Arabic numerals
Hindman Chicago: 5 May 2021
Estimated: USD 5,000 – 9,000
USD 17,500
ROY LICHTENSTEIN (1923-1997)
Mermaid, 1978
7-color lithograph
Signed, dated, and numbered 49/60 in pencil
Christie’s New-York: 19 April 2017
Estimated: USD 4,000 – 6,000
USD 17,500
ROY LICHTENSTEIN (1923-1997)
Mermaid, from Surrealist Series, 1978
Lithograph in colors on Arches 88 paper
Signed and dated in pencil, numbered 48/60 (there were also ten artist’s proofs)