Joseph StellaReclining Nudec. 1935-39
c. 1935-39
About the Item
- Creator:Joseph Stella (1877-1946, American, Italian)
- Creation Year:c. 1935-39
- Dimensions:Height: 50 in (127 cm)Width: 52.5 in (133.35 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Palm Desert, CA
- Reference Number:
Joseph Stella
Joseph Stella was a visionary artist who painted what he saw, an idiosyncratic and individual experience of his time and place. Stella arrived in New York in 1896, part of a wave of Italian immigrants from poverty-stricken Southern Italy. But Stella was not a child of poverty. His father was a notary and respected citizen in Muro Lucano, a small town in the southern Apennines. The five Stella brothers were all properly educated in Naples. Stella’s older brother, Antonio, was the first of the family to come to America. Antonio Stella trained as a physician in Italy, and was a successful and respected doctor in the Italian community centered in Greenwich Village. He sponsored and supported his younger brother, Joseph, first sending him to medical school in New York, then to study pharmacology, and then sustaining him through the early days of his artistic career. Antonio Stella specialized in the treatment of tuberculosis and was active in social reform circles. His connections were instrumental in Joseph Stella’s early commissions for illustrations in reform journals.
Joseph Stella, from the beginning, was an outsider. He was of the Italian-American community, but did not share its overwhelming poverty and general lack of education. He went back to Italy on several occasions, but was no longer an Italian. His art incorporated many influences. At various times his work echoed the concerns and techniques of the so-called Ashcan School, of New York Dada, of Futurism and, of Cubism, among others. These are all legitimate influences, but Stella never totally committed himself to any group. He was a convivial, but ultimately solitary figure, with a lifelong mistrust of any authority external to his own personal mandate. He was in Europe during the time that Alfred Stieglitz established his 291 Gallery. When Stella returned he joined the international coterie of artists who gathered at the West Side apartment of the art patron Conrad Arensberg. It was here that Stella became close friends with Marcel Duchamp.
Stella was 19 when he arrived in America and studied in the early years of the century at the Art Students League, and with William Merritt Chase, under whose tutelage he received rigorous training as a draftsman. His love of line, and his mastery of its techniques, is apparent early in his career in the illustrations he made for various social reform journals. Stella, whose later work as a colorist is breathtakingly lush, never felt obliged to choose between line and color. He drew throughout his career, and unlike other modernists, whose work evolved inexorably to more and more abstract form, Stella freely reverted to earlier realist modes of representation whenever it suited him. This was because, in fact, his “realist” work was not “true to nature,” but true to Stella’s own unique interpretation. Stella began to draw flowers, vegetables, butterflies, and birds in 1919, after he had finished the Brooklyn Bridge series of paintings, which are probably his best-known works. These drawings of flora and fauna were initially coincidental with his fantastical, nostalgic and spiritual vision of his native Italy which he called Tree of My Life (Mr. and Mrs. Barney A. Ebsworth Foundation and Windsor, Inc., St. Louis, illus. in Barbara Haskell, Joseph Stella, exh. cat. [New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1994], p. 111 no. 133).
(Biography provided by Hirschl & Adler)
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: Jackson, WY
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 7 days of delivery.
- Parisian ModelBy Max WeberLocated in Palm Desert, CA"Parisian Model" is an oil on canvas painting by Max Weber painted in 1908. The work is signed and dated, lower right, "Max Weber Paris 1908". The painting size is 35 1/2 x 19 5/8 inches. The framed size is 43 x 27 x 2 1/4 inches. "Parisian Model" was painted in 1908, when Weber participated in a life class in Matisse's studio in Paris and painted several nudes. Weber was influenced toward a more Cubist styler after seeing Cezanne's work in the 1906-07 Salon in Paris, and he consorted within avant-garde circles in Paris as early as 1905. After returning to the US in 1909, Weber was credited with showing American audiences Cubism based on his firsthand knowledge of the key players and the style. Several drawings of Weber's from this time are in museum collections at The Met, the Smithsonian, and MoMA and show a similar style and stocatto gesture. Parisian paintings by Max Weber are extremely rare as there are hardly any that have sold publicly. Provenance: Estate of the Artist Gerald Peters Gallery...Category
Early 20th Century American Modern Nude Paintings
MaterialsCanvas, Oil
- GeeseLocated in Palm Desert, CAA painting by Gregory Sumida. “Geese” is a landscape painting, watercolor on paper in an earth-tone palette by American artist Gregory Sumida. The artwork is signed in the lower left...Category
Late 20th Century American Modern Figurative Paintings
MaterialsWatercolor
- Powwow 19: IntertribalBy Earl StaleyLocated in Palm Desert, CAAn acrylic on canvas board executed in bright primary colors, black and earth tones by American artist Earl Staley. Signed lower left, "Staley 96." Prov...Category
1990s American Modern Figurative Paintings
MaterialsBoard, Acrylic
- Portrait of Enriqueta G. DávilaBy Diego RiveraLocated in Palm Desert, CAA painting by Diego Rivera. "Portrait of Enriqueta G. Dávila" is a modern portrait, oil on canvas in a palette of whites, browns, purples, and reds by Mexican artist Diego Rivera. Th...Category
Mid-20th Century Modern Figurative Paintings
MaterialsOil, Canvas
- Quadro teologico in onore di Puccetto, Canarino Morto da TempoBy Max PellegriniLocated in Palm Desert, CAA painting by Max Pellegrini. "Quadro teologico in onore di Puccetto, Canarino Morto da Tempo" is an oil on canvas painting executed primarily in a palette of blues and yellows with ...Category
Early 2000s Contemporary Figurative Paintings
MaterialsCanvas, Oil
- American Street SceneBy Irving NormanLocated in Palm Desert, CAA painting by Irving Norman. "American Street Scene" is a macabre social surrealism city scape, oil on canvas in a bold palette of reds, blues, and yellows by artist Irving Norman. T...Category
Mid-20th Century Post-War Figurative Paintings
MaterialsCanvas, Oil
- Abstract painting of People on the Beach oil on canvas circa 1950-1960 New YorkBy Aaron BerkmanLocated in Rancho Santa Fe, CAAaron Berkman (New York, 1900 - 1929) "Beach" Oil on canvas 20 x 24 inches Signed lower right: Aaron Berkman Unframed Provenance: Private collection, USA An abstract oil painting o...Category
Mid-20th Century American Modern Figurative Paintings
MaterialsCanvas, Oil
- Girl in a White Dress, Oil Painting on Canvas by Edith Varian CockcroftBy Edith Varian CockcroftLocated in Long Island City, NYArtist: Edith Varian Cockroft, American (1881 - 1962) Title: Girl in a White Dress Year: 1961-1962 Medium: Oil on Canvas, signed l.r.(signed Cocroft) ...Category
1960s American Modern Figurative Paintings
MaterialsCanvas, Oil
- “Girl in the Grass”By Anton RefregierLocated in Southampton, NYOriginal oil on canvas painting by Anton Refregier of a young girl resting in the grass. Signed upper right and dated 1962. Condition is very good. The painting is in its original oa...Category
1960s American Modern Figurative Paintings
MaterialsCanvas, Oil
- William Fisher Classic American Illustration on CanvasLocated in Larchmont, NYWilliam Fisher (American, 1891-1985) Untitled, 20th Century Oil on canvas/illustration 23 3/4 x 29 3/4 in. Framed: 31 x 37 1/4 x 1 in. Signed lower right: William Fisher William Fis...Category
20th Century American Modern Figurative Paintings
MaterialsCanvas, Oil
- “The Green Necklace”By Nahum TschacbasovLocated in Southampton, NYOil on canvas original painting by The Russian/ American artist, Nahum Tschacbasov. Signed lower left and dated 1943. Condition is very good. Framed in custom contemporary gold le...Category
1940s American Modern Figurative Paintings
MaterialsCanvas, Oil
- “Woman with Birds”By Nahum TschacbasovLocated in Southampton, NYOriginal mid-century modern oil on canvas board painting of a woman with birds by the well known Russian/American artist Nahum Tschacbasov. Signed and ...Category
1950s American Modern Nude Paintings
MaterialsOil, Canvas
Recently Viewed
View AllRead More
Penelope Gottlieb’s Comic-Style Painting Is a Requiem for a Vanished Flower
This piece may look like Pop art fun, but embedded within is a message of a planet on the brink.
10 Reasons Art Collectors Are Obsessed with Andy Warhol
More than three decades after his death, the prolific Pop artist and cultural icon's body of work continues to captivate. Here's a primer of some of his most notable motifs and mediums.