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When did Joseph Stella paint the Brooklyn Bridge?
1 Answer

Joseph Stella first painted the Brooklyn Bridge in 1918. He actually returned to the subject numerous times, completing additional paintings of the landmark in 1918, 1920, 1939 and 1941. Examining these paintings side by side shows how Stella's style became more and more abstract over the course of his career. Explore an assortment of Joseph Stella art on 1stDibs.
1stDibs ExpertAugust 29, 2024
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Shop for Joseph Stella Art on 1stDibs
"Tree, Trunk, and Roots, New York" Joseph Stella, American Modernism
By Joseph Stella
Located in New York, NY
Joseph Stella (1877 - 1946)
Tree, Trunk, and Roots, Bronx, New York, circa 1924
Oil on canvas
12 x 16 inches
inscribed in another hand Joseph Stella/Estate and bears Joseph Stella Estate stamp (on the reverse)
Provenance:
The Estate of the Artist
Rabin & Kreuger, New Jersey
Parke Bernet Galleries, New York, March 14, 1968, Lot 147
ACA Galleries, New York
Thence by descent
Stella was born June 13, 1877 at Muro Lucano, Italy, a mountain village not far from Naples. He became painter laureate of Muro Lucano when he was in his teens with a representation of the local saint in the village church. Stella immigrated to America in 1896 and studied medicine and pharmacology, but upon the advice of artist friend Carlo de Fornaro, who recognized his undeveloped talent, he enrolled at the Art Students League in 1897. Stella objected to the rule forbidding the painting of flowers, an indication of his lifelong devotion to flower painting. He also studied under William Merritt Chase in the New York School of Art and at Shinnecock Hills, Long Island in 1901-1902, displaying the bravura brushwork and dark Impressionist influence of Chase.
Stella liked to paint the raw street life of immigrant society, rendering this element more emotionally than the city realists, the Aschcan School headed by Robert Henri. Stella went through a progression of styles--from realism to abstraction--mixing media and painting simultaneously in different manners, reviving styles and subjects years later.
The "Survey" sent Stella to illustrate the mining disaster of 1907 in Monongah, West Virginia, and in 1908 commissioned him to execute drawings of the Pittsburgh industrial scene. Steel and electricity became a major experience in shaping his responses to the modern world, and Stella succeeded in portraying the pathos of the steelworkers and the Pittsburgh landscape.
Stella went abroad in 1909 at the age of thirty-two, lonely for his native land. He returned to Italy, traveling to Venice, Florence and Rome. He took up the glazing technique of the old Venetian masters to get warmth, transparency, and depth of color. One of Stella's paintings was shown in the International Exhibition in Rome in 1910 and was acquired by the city of Rome.
The influence of the French Modernists awakened his dormant individuality. His friendship with Antonio Mancini, a Futurist, also played a role in his new style. At the urging of Walter Pach...
Category
1920s American Modern Landscape Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
$32,000 Sale Price
46% Off
"Study of Mt. Vesuvius" Oil on Canvas, Blue Tones, Landscape
By Joseph Stella
Located in Detroit, MI
SALE ONE WEEK ONLY
“Study of Mt. Vesuvius" is a small intimate painting of an active volcano that has at times wrecked great destruction. As seen from a distance, it is a calm blue ...
Category
Late 20th Century American Modern Landscape Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Portrait of Grace
By Joseph Stella
Located in Bryn Mawr, PA
Portrait of Grace, 1944
Oil on canvas, 23 x 20 inches (58.4 x 50.8 cm)
Framed dimensions 31 1/2 x 28 1/2 inches
Signed and dated lower left: Joseph Stella / 1944 Signed on verso: Jos...
Category
1940s American Modern Portrait Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Untitled (Woman's Head in Profile)
By Joseph Stella
Located in Bryn Mawr, PA
Untitled (Woman's Head in Profile)
Watercolor and pastel on paper laid down on board, 20 x 13 inches (50.8 x 33 cm)
Framed dimensions: 27 x 20 inches
Signed upper left: Joseph Stella...
Category
20th Century American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Pastel, Watercolor, Board
Antique Oil Painting of Serene Landscape, Signed, Circa 19th Century
By Joseph Stella
Located in Bryn Mawr, PA
White Lilies
Watercolor, gouache, crayon, and silverpoint on paper
11 1/4 x 16 7/16 inches
28.6 x 41.8 cm
Framed dimensions 19 1/2 x 25 1/2 inches
Provenance
The artist;
By bequest ...
Category
Early 20th Century American Modern Still-life Paintings
Materials
Paper, Crayon, Watercolor, Gouache
Lily and Bird
By Joseph Stella
Located in New York, NY
Silverpoint and colored pencil on paper, 29 x 23 in.
Signed (at lower right): Joseph Stella
Executed about 1919
EXHIBITED: Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, November 23, 1985–January 4, 1986, American Masterworks on Paper: Drawings, Watercolors, and Prints, pp. 6, 46 no. 47 illus. // (probably) Richard York Gallery, New York, October 5–November 17, 1990, Joseph Stella: 100 Works on Paper, no. 36 // Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia; Brandywine Museum, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, October 1, 2022–September 24, 2023, Joseph Stella: Visionary Nature
EX COLL.: [Dudensing Galleries, New York]; sale, Christie’s, New York, December 7, 1984, lot 324; [Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, 1984]; to private collection, 2006 until the present
An independent-minded artist who adhered to the credo “Rules don’t exist,” Joseph Stella explored a range of styles, media, and themes, willfully ignoring the “barricades erected by ... [the] self-appointed dictators” of the art establishment (Joseph Stella, “On Painting,” Broom 11 [December 1921], pp. 122–23; Joseph Stella, “Discovery of America: Autobiographical Notes,” Art News 59 [November 1960], p. 41). By doing so, he produced a diverse and highly eclectic body of work, ranging from realist figure subjects, pulsating Futurist cityscapes, and modernist religious...
Category
Early 20th Century American Modern Animal Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Color Pencil


