Bowdoin College Museum of Art |

Preview image of work. silverpoint and colored pencil on paper, White Amaryllis 32728

2017.8.11

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White Amaryllis

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Artist

Joseph Stella (Muro Lucano, Italy, 1877 - 1946, Astoria, New York)

Title

White Amaryllis

Creation Date

ca. 1920

Century

early 20th century

Dimensions

9 1/4 x 7 5/8 in. (23 x 19 cm)

Object Type

drawing

Creation Place

North America, United States

Medium and Support

silverpoint and colored pencil on paper

Credit Line

Gift of halley k harrisburg, Class of 1990, and Michael Rosenfeld

Copyright

This artwork may be under copyright. For further information, please consult the Museum’s Copyright Terms and Conditions.

Accession Number

2017.8.11

The Italian-American painter and draftsmen Joseph Stella straddled two worlds and developed two distinct idioms. Italian Futurism inspired him to celebrate American technological progress in iconic paintings of the Brooklyn Bridge. Increasingly disenchanted with modern advancements, he also created some of the most poetic and well-observed renderings of botany in American twentieth-century art. In this closely focused work, Stella used the silverpoint, a method of drawing developed in the Middle Ages. The artist took a silver stylus to coated paper, making marks by scratching lines into the uppermost layer. He then completed the drawing with colored pencil.

Additional Media

obverse