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)
Blue Waterlily
By Joseph Stella
Located in Bryn Mawr, PA
Born in Italy, Joseph Stella immigrated to New York City at the age of nineteen and went on to become one of America’s foremost modernist painters. He remained deeply loyal to his It...
Oil
Barbados Scene, American Modern Oil on Canvas, 1937, Framed, 11x15\"
By Joseph Stella
Located in Bryn Mawr, PA
Joseph Stella(1877-1946) A Corner of Barbados, 1937 Oil on canvas, 11 x 15 inches (27.9 x 38.1 cm) Inscribed on verso: A corner of / Barbados / O:P by / Joseph Stella Provenance The artist; By bequest to his nephew, Sergio Stella, 1946; By descent in the family, until the present Joseph Stella’s artistic career defies easy categorization. He was simultaneously a modernist and traditionalist, a dual citizen of the Old and New World, a bold experimenter and masterful practitioner of time-honored artistic techniques. His iconic paintings of New York City, such as the Brooklyn Bridge and Coney Island, celebrate modernity and the Machine Age, while his exuberant paintings of the natural world speak to the spiritual revelation that guided and grounded him throughout his life. Until recently, the divergent aspects of Stella’s career “confounded his legacy.” But in Joseph Stella: Visionary Nature, the multi-venue museum exhibition that focuses on the artist’s lifelong engagement with nature, a more complete and nuanced understanding of his career has emerged. Stella’s work of flora and fauna demonstrate his deep connection to and close observational study of nature to invigorate his creativity and sustain his human spirit. Indeed, nature was a salve to his woes about life and the modern age. He made countless drawings and paintings of flowers, many of which were done at the New York Botanical Garden – a favorite place for the artist. In these works, Stella explored new styles and pressed the limits of his imagination. Like nature itself, he was always changing, always growing. Stella found himself in Barbados in 1937, when then health of his wife had declined and she asked him to bring her home. He loved the island paradise, as it reawakened his creativity and love the natural world, much as his returns to Italy did. Although he remained in Barbados for only five months, the landscape he absorbed and the motifs he developed fueled his art for the next three years. The Barbados paintings...
Canvas, Oil
Flowers in a Vase
By Joseph Stella
Located in Bryn Mawr, PA
Provenance The artist; By bequest to his nephew, Sergio Stella, 1946; By descent in the family, until the present Exhibitions Richard York Gallery, New York, 1994, Joseph Stella's N...
Oil
Reclining Nude
By Joseph Stella
Located in Palm Desert, CA
A painting by Joseph Stella. "Reclining Nude" is a figurative painting, oil on canvas in a bright palette of yellows, greens, and tans by American Modernist artist Joseph Stella. The...
Canvas, Oil
$41,250Sale Price|25% Off
Still Life of Books and Chinese Lanterns in Vibrant Colors
By Joseph Stella
Located in Miami, FL
Joseph Stella creates a beautiful and colorful still life rendered in lush expressive bright colors and quick spontaneous bravura brushstrokes.. Signed Lower Right Joseph Stella Fra...
Pastel
"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 ...
Canvas, Oil
Rose and Angel
By Joseph Stella
Located in London, GB
Joseph Stella was an Italian born American whose repertoire spans many different themes, ideas and impulses with pictorial diversity - which becomes difficult to classify. However, h...
Canvas, Oil
$32,000Sale Price|46% Off
"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...
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...
Canvas, Oil
$68,000Sale Price|20% Off
Water Lily and Woodchuck - Barbados
By Joseph Stella
Located in Miami, FL
Powerful visual done at Stella's peak period of creativity in Barbados. Signed lower right. Provenance: Doyle, New York Elegantly framed.
Gouache, Paper
$17,500
Pink Flower
By Joseph Stella
Located in Bryn Mawr, PA
Born in Italy, Joseph Stella immigrated to New York City at the age of nineteen and went on to become one of America’s foremost modernist painters. He remained deeply loyal to his It...
Oil
$27,200Sale Price|20% Off
Thistles
By Joseph Stella
Located in Miami, FL
Signature: Signed, dated 1938 and inscribed Italy lower right. Thistles, 1938 Pastel on paper 25 3/4 × 18 3/4 in Work is framed Christie's, New York Very strong in person. Gallery st...
Pastel
$36,000
H 20 in W 30.25 in D 2 in
Late Afternoon - Modernist Mid-Century Midwest Oil Painting
Located in Marco Island, FL
A quintessential American Scene landscape painted by the Chicago Modernist, William Schwartz. Workers in tilled fields surrounding a farmstead under dramatic skies. Painted in 1935...
Canvas, Oil
$39,000
H 45 in W 39 in
NYC Cityscape American Scene WPA Modern Realism Mid 20th Century Architectural
By Ernest Fiene
Located in New York, NY
NYC Cityscape American Scene WPA Modern Realism Mid 20th Century Architectural Ernest Fiene (1894-1965) Cityscape 36 x 30 inches Oil on canvas Signed and dated 1930. lower right Provenance Estate of the artist. ACA Galleries, New York Exhibited New York, Frank Rehn Gallery, Changing Old New York, 1931. New York, ACA Galleries, Ernest Fiene: Art of the City, 1925-1955, May 2-23, 1981, n.p., no. 5. BIO Ernest Fiene was born in Elberfeld, Germany in 1894. As a teenager, Fiene immigrated to the United States in 1912. He studied art at the National Academy of Design in New York City from 1914 to 1918, taking day classes with Thomas Maynard and evening classes with Leon Kroll. Fiene continued his studies at the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design in New York from 1916 to 1918, adding classes in printmaking at the Art Students League in 1923. Fiene began his career as an artist in 1919 with his first exhibition of watercolors at the MacDowell Club arranged by his mentor Robert Henri. In 1923 the Whitney Studio Club mounted a large exhibition of his works. The following year he had an exhibition at the New Gallery in New York, which completely sold out all fifty-two works, including paintings, watercolors, drawings, and etchings. With the proceeds of sales from the New Gallery exhibition, Ernest Fiene and his younger brother Paul, a sculptor, built studios in Woodstock, New York in 1925. In the early Twenties Ernest Fiene painted mostly landscapes of Woodstock and both the Ramapo and Hudson River Valleys. The first monograph from the Younger Artists Series was published on Fiene in 1922. Published in Woodstock, the series went on to include Alexander Brook, Peggy Bacon, and Yasuo Kuniyoshi. The book reproduced 1 illustration in color and another 27 reproductions in black and white. Around 1925 Fiene became fascinated with the intensity, excitement, and opportunities for color harmonies New York City offered as a subject. His paintings shifted to urban and industrial themes with architecture, industry, and transportation becoming his subjects. By 1926 Fiene had attracted the dealer Frank K.M. Rehn, who gave him a one-man exhibition that year, which travelled to the Boston Arts Club. C.W. Kraushaar Galleries gave Fiene a one-man exhibition of urban, landscape, portrait, and still life paintings in 1927. Julianna Force, the director of the Whitney Studio Club and first director of the Whitney Museum of American Art, included two of Fiene’s paintings in a fall exhibition in 1928. The Whitney Studio Club showed Fiene’s paintings in a two-man exhibition with Glenn O. Coleman that year and acquired three of Fiene’s paintings. Also in 1928 Fiene became affiliated with Edith Halpert’s Downtown Gallery where he had an exhibition of 20 lithographs in the spring. Fiene sold his house in Woodstock in 1928 to spend more of his time in New York City. With so many successful exhibitions, Fiene returned to Paris in 1928-29 where he rented Jules Pascin's studio and studied at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. In France, Fiene painted both landscape and urban subjects developed from ideas influenced by Cubist geometry and the use of flat areas of broad color. Upon returning to New York in 1930, Fiene used this new approach to continue to paint New York skyscraper and waterfront subjects, as well as to begin a series of paintings on changing old New York based on the excavations for Radio City Music Hall and the construction of the Empire State Building. Frank K.M. Rehn Galleries exhibited this series, titled “Changing Old New York,” in 1931. Fiene also has solo exhibitions at Rehn Galleries in 1930 and 1932. Fiene’s oil paintings are exhibited at the Chicago Arts Club in 1930 as well. Fiene was included in the Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition Painting and Sculpture by Living Americans in December of 1931. Visiting New York, Henri Matisse saw the exhibition and called Fiene’s Razing Buildings, West 49th Street the finest painting he had seen in New York. Fiene had two mural studies from his Mechanical Progress series exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition Murals by American Painters and Photographers in 1932. Fiene sent View from my Window which depicts Fiene working on a lithograph stone while looking out his window to the newly completed Empire State Building to the Carnegie International in 1931. In 1932 Fiene participated in the first Biennial of American Painting at the Whitney Museum and his prints were included in exhibitions at the Downtown Gallery and the Wehye Gallery. In the same year, Fiene was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship to further study mural painting in Florence, Italy. On his return from Italy in 1933 Fiene re-engaged himself in New York City life and won several public and private mural projects. Fiene resumed his active exhibition schedule, participating in two group exhibitions at the Whitney Museum and a one-man exhibition of recent paintings at the Downtown Gallery in January 1934. In 1933 he purchased a farm in Southbury, Connecticut, which added Connecticut scenes to his landscape subjects. This was also the year Fiene began to spend summers on Monhegan Island, Maine, where he painted seascapes, harbor scenes, and still lifes. Fiene’s landscape paintings attracted numerous commissions as part of the American Scene movement. Through the fall and winter of 1935-36, Fiene took an extended sketching trip through the urban, industrial, and farming areas of Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Most of the twenty-four Pennsylvania urban and rural paintings...
Canvas, Oil
$75,000
H 31 in W 27 in D 2 in
Till the Clouds Roll By 1945 Frank Sinatra Mid Century Modern Hollywood Film WPA
By Richard Whorf
Located in New York, NY
Till the Clouds Roll By 1945 Frank Sinatra Mid Century Modern Hollywood Film WPA TILL THE COULDS ROLL BY (Film Set), oil on canvas, 20 x 24 inches signed “Richard Whorf” lower right and signed and dated on the verso “R. Whorf/ Dec. 21, 1945. Frame by Hendenryk. ABOUT THE PAINTING This painting is from the collection of Barbara and Frank Sinatra, dated December 21, 1945 (just nine days after Frank Sinatra’s 30th birthday), and depicts the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Culver City backlot during the filming of Till the Clouds Roll By, the direction of the film having been taking over by Richard Whorf in December 1945. It is not presently clear if Whorf gave the Sinatras this painting as a gift, as the presence of the Dalzell Hatfield Galleries label on the verso indicates the painting may have been sourced there. Frank and Nancy Sinatra acquired a number of works from Dalzell Hatfield Galleries during the 1940’s, or perhaps they framed it for the couple. Sinatra performed “Old Man River’ in the film. Sinatra and June Allyson are depicted in the center of the painting. PROVENANCE From the Estate of Mrs. Nancy Sinatra; Dalzell Hatfield Galleries, Ambassador Hotel, Los Angeles. An image of the Dalzell Hatfield label and the back of the original frame (which we replaced with a stunning Heydenrk frame) are attached. Nancy Sinatra was Fran's first wife. Nancy Rose Barbato was 17 years old when she met Frank Sinatra, an 18-year-old singer from Hoboken, on the Jersey Shore in the summer of 1934. They married in 1939 at Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Jersey City where Frank gave Nancy a recording of a song dedicated to her titled "Our Love" as a wedding present. The young newlyweds lived and worked in New Jersey, where Frank worked as an unknown singing waiter and master of ceremonies at the Rustic Cabin while Nancy worked as a secretary at the American Type Founders. His musical career took off after singing with big band leaders Harry James and Tommy Dorsey...
Canvas, Oil
$95,000
H 38 in W 48 in D 2 in
"Winter" American Modernism WPA Regionalism Landscape Mid-Century Magic Realism
By Dale Nichols
Located in New York, NY
"Winter" American Modernism WPA Regionalism Landscape Mid-Century Magic Realism. 30 x 40 inches. Oil on canvas, c. 1960s, Signed lower right. As we list the painting now, the work is currently being cleaned, restored and a hand carved frame is being built. Additional photos will be uploaded as soon as possible. Our gallery, Helicline Fine Art, just launched our new digital exhibition: American Art: The WPA and Beyond. Three dozen paintings, works on paper and sculptures which are available here on 1stDibs. In person viewings can be arranged by appointment at our midtown Manhattan gallery. Provenance: "Winter" was originally purchased by Stanley Byer. Mr. Byer owned homes in Key West, New York City, and Washington, D.C. He purchased the painting from Dunning Auction in 1984 in Elgin, Illinois. Mr. Byer was related to Abraham Weiss from Florida. Saul Babbin, now deceased was a cousin of Mr. Weiss. I purchased the painting from Joy Babbin, Mr. Babbin's wife, now living in from New Mexico. Dale Nichols (1905 – 1995) Artist, printmaker, illustrator, watercolorist, designer, writer and lecturer, Nichols did paintings that reflected his rural background of Nebraska where he was born in David City, a small town. Although he did much sketching outdoors, most of his paintings were completed in his studio and often included "numerology, magic squares...
Canvas, Oil
$22,000
H 35 in W 44 in D 2 in
Mid-Century Painting of Party by African-American from Detroit.
Located in Marco Island, FL
The scale of this dynamic party painting by Leroy Foster (1925-1993) makes you feel like you are in the room with a cocktail in hand. He was an accomplished muralist, so it is no s...
Canvas, Oil
$4,950
H 34 in W 42 in D 2 in
“Still Life, 1936” by Katharine "Kitty" Duff Church British Modern Oil Signed
Located in Yardley, PA
“Still Life, 1936” by Katharine "Kitty" Duff Church (British, 1910-1999). This large, early painting by Katherine Church is among her finest canvases of the period. Characterized by its bold color palette, simplified forms, and expressive brushwork, this composition centers around a tabletop adorned with various objects: potted plants, a ceramic dish, bottles, and what appear to be books or papers. The two potted plants provide contrasting elements: on the left, what appears to be a cyclamen with red blossoms and delicate leaves, and on the right, a lush green plant with darker foliage. These plants, painted with loose, textured strokes, add an organic quality to the otherwise structured arrangement. The tabletop is cluttered yet thoughtfully composed, featuring additional objects like a clear, faceted glass bowl, a small bottle, and books or pads in striking red and green. The dynamic use of color blocks and the juxtaposition of shapes (round pots against rectangular books) create a sense of rhythm and harmony. The background is darker and less defined, emphasizing the brightly lit tabletop. Church's brushwork is gestural and modernist, leaning toward abstraction, challenging traditional still life conventions. This painting reflects Church’s interest in balancing everyday objects with bold artistic expression. It conveys both the simplicity and complexity of daily life, transforming an ordinary moment into a vibrant and engaging work of art. This work is oil on canvas and is signed and dated in the lower right. It is housed in its original gessoed frame and retains various labels and inscriptions on the reverse. Size: 28.25 inches tall by 36 inches wide (painting) 34 inches tall by 42 inches wide by 2 inches deep (frame) Provenance: Private collection, NY; Acquired from the above About the artist: Born in Highgate, north London, Katharine Church, known as ‘Kitty’ amongst friends and family, always wanted to paint. She trained at the Royal Academy of Arts between 1930-1933 and at the Slade between 1933 and 1934. In her early years Kitty exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy. Her first solo exhibition was in 1933 at the Wertheim Gallery. Other artists who exhibited there included Christopher Wood, Victor Pasmore and Cedric Morris. Kitty also showed with the New English Art Club, the London Group and between 1937-1947 her work was exhibited at the influential Lefevre Gallery, which supported avant-garde artists such as Henry Moore, Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth. In 1954 the artist was invited to take part in the Figures in their setting exhibition held at the Tate Gallery. Henry Tonks and Philip Wilson Steer had a strong influence on Kitty’s early work, but it was her friendship with Ivon Hitchens that liberated her painting technique. In 1936 Kitty married Anthony West, the son of writers Rebecca West and H.G. Wells. The couple initially lived in London before moving to Quarry Farm, Chicksgrove, Tisbury, near Salisbury, where they brought up their children Caroline and Edmund. There they hosted many of their friends, including the New Zealand painter Frances Hodgkins. Other regular visitors before the War included John and Mywafany Piper, Ralph and Frances Partridge, Noel and Catharine Carrington, Julian Trevelyan and Mary Fedden. For many of those who visited Kitty would organise painting expeditions. After the war Kitty and Anthony separated, with Anthony moving to the United States. Anthony West moved to the United States to work as a journalist for The New Yorker. In the early years after their parting Kitty visited most years with the children. In the 1960s Kitty purchased Sutton House and ran the Hambledon Gallery at Blandford Forum. There she promoted the work of her early art-school friends Mary Fedden and Julian Trevelyan, alongside work by the Pipers, John Craxton...
Canvas, Oil
$9,500
H 20 in W 24 in D 2 in
Landscape with Artist. Mid-Century Chicago Modernist Oil Painting.
Located in Marco Island, FL
Chicago Modernist, William Schwartz, painted this dynamic landscape of an artist painting en plein air. He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago shortly after emigrating to the Un...
Board, Oil, Canvas
$8,500
H 38 in W 48 in D 2 in
"War Brides, Wash Sq NYC" American Scene WWII Modernism WPA Mid-Century Oil
By Georgina Klitgaard
Located in New York, NY
"War Brides, Wash Sq NYC" American Scene WWII Modernism WPA Mid-Century Oil. 30 x 40 inches. Oil on canvas, c. 1942. Signed lower right. Titled on the stretcher. Housed in a sensational Heydenryk frame. Our gallery, Helicline Fine Art...
Canvas, Oil
$895
H 32 in W 24 in D 3 in
Vintage Modernist Still Life of Tulips, American School, Oil on Canvas, 1956
Located in Baltimore, MD
This is not your grandmother’s typical still life painting. But if she was young and hip for her time, maybe it is. Painted on stretched canvas and dated (19)56, it is only signed ...
Oil
The Artist's Wife oil painting by Hans Burkhardt
By Hans Burkhardt
Located in Hudson, NY
Hans Burkhardt The Artist's Wife (1930) Oil on canvas, 20" x 16" 24" x 20 ½" x 1 ½" framed Dated 1930 lower right recto. Annotated "To Elsa HB Louise Burkhardt 1930. HB" verso. ...
Canvas, Oil
$68,000
H 51 in W 33 in D 2 in
Summer Resort in Michigan -Modernist Mid-Century Saugatuck Oil Painting
Located in Marco Island, FL
Summer Resort in Michigan is an exceptional work painted by the Chicago Modernist, William Schwartz. He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago shortly ...
Canvas, Oil
Edgar Yeager Figurative Interior Scene
By Edgar Yaeger
Located in Detroit, MI
SALE ONE WEEK ONLY Yaeger was an American Modernist painter from Detroit, Michigan, who is credited with being one of the first painters in this style. The portrait “Untitled” easil...
Canvas, Oil
Sold
H 15 in W 16 in
"Lemon and Eggplant Still Life" Joseph Stella, American Modernism, Colorful
By Joseph Stella
Located in New York, NY
Joseph Stella Lemon and Eggplant Still Life, circa 1929 Signed lower center; signed on the stretcher and reverse and inscribed "Still Life" on the reverse Oil on canvas 10 x 11 inches 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, Stella made a trip to Paris, where he met Gertrude and Leo Stein and saw the work of Matisse and the leading Fauves, spurring him to paint with alluring, vivid colors. Stella effected a quick transition from traditionality to the abstract idiom. At the Galerie Bernheim-Jeune in 1912, he saw the works of his countrymen Carlo Carra, Umberto Boccioni and Gino Severini. Primed with these influences, Stella returned to New York in late 1912. His preference for structural composition is obvious in the paintings in which he fused high-key color with broad broken strokes, which were included in the 1913 Armory Show. A month following the Armory Show, Stella premiered at the Italian National Club to which the Italian ambassador made a special appearance to toast "an event in the history of the Italian colony here." "Battle of Lights" (1914) was Stella's first major Futurist work created as a result of the Armory Show,propelling Stella into the vanguard of Modernism. Color chips in various sizes with dense design and spears representing light beams allows the composition movement within a stable axis. This caused a sensation when displayed in a group show at the Montross Gallery in 1914. Stella was represented in a group show at the Bourgeois Galleries in 1917 and 1918, and began a series of industrial paintings which grew out of the "Survey" commission, most notably the "Brooklyn Bridge" (1917-1918) in which he combined Cubist and Futurist techniques. This was exhibited in a one-man show at Bourgeois in 1920 and advanced his reputation substantially as the "poet" of the industrial scene. Stella had a show at the Whitney Studio Club in 1921. His most ambitious work "New York Interpreted" (1920-1922) inspired by Robert Delaunay's "La Ville de Paris" was displayed at his solo show at the 1923 Société Anonyme of which he was a charter member. At the same time, Stella was producing lyrical nocturnes and paintings heavy with symbolism bearing resemblance to the work of Odilon Redon. He also executed innumerable drawings of flowers as he wrote, "my devout wish, that my every working day might begin and end. . . with the light, gay painting...
Canvas, Oil