Le Forêt (or Serenade)

Maker Joseph Stella (American, 1877 - 1946)

Collections

ClassificationsDRAWINGS

Date1918

Mediumpastel on paper

Dimensions18 × 24 in. (45.7 × 61 cm.) frame: 31 1/2 × 37 1/4 in. (80 × 94.6 cm.)

Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Purchased with funds from Associated Foundations, Betty and Brack Duker, Paul and Heather Haaga, Margery and Maurice Katz, Mrs. Eugene Ronay, Margaret Richards, the Virginia Steele Scott Foundation, Warren and Alyce Williamson, and Gene and Billie Yeager

Status

Not on view

Label TextJoseph Stella developed his approach to Modernism after seeing work by the Italian Futurists, whose paintings are characterized by dynamic compositions, repeated forms that indicate movement, and a symbolic use of color. The rhythmic, curling shape in the foreground, the seemingly electrified tree on the left, and the central triangular forms that move diagonally back in space suggest the energy and power of nature. The abstract shapes and emotive, moody colors also resemble work by French Symbolist artist the Odilon Redon, whose work Stella admired in Paris and at the Armory Show in 1913.
The work of the Futurists may have particularly appealed to Stella because he, too, was Italian. After immigrating to the United States in 1896, he returned to Italy and France from 1909 until 1912 to study art. Once back in the United States, he began interpreting his subjects in a Cubist-Futurist style.

Object number99.15