Joseph Stella Italian, American, 1877-1946
The Heron, 1925
Oil on canvas
48 x 29 inches
121.9 x 73.7 cm
121.9 x 73.7 cm
Signed at lower right: J. Stella; signed and dated on the verso: Joseph Stella 1925
Stella...regularly visited the Bronx Zoo where, like the Botanical Garden across the street, visitors could wander between displays spanning diverse ecosystems of the world. Stella would have seen a range...
Stella...regularly visited the Bronx Zoo where, like the Botanical Garden across the street, visitors could wander between displays spanning diverse ecosystems of the world. Stella would have seen a range of animals in naturalistic habitats. The birds, in particular, must have fascinated Stella, and much like his hybrid flowers, bizarre, feathered animals began to appear in his pictures—from the fantastical to the real...Stella’s whimsical rule-breaking approach to representation would remain a feature of his artistic expression throughout his career.
— Stephanie Mayer Heydt, excerpt from "Joseph Stella: Visionary Nature"
— Stephanie Mayer Heydt, excerpt from "Joseph Stella: Visionary Nature"
Provenance
The artist;The Warner Collection of Gulf States Paper Corporation, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, by 1994;
[Gerald Peters Gallery, New York, 2000];
Private collection, 2000 until the present
Exhibitions
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Joseph Stella, April 22–October 9, 1994, no. 185Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., Crosscurrents: Modern Art from the Sam Rose and Julie Walters Collection, October 30, 2015–April 6, 2016
Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia; Brandywine Museum of Art, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, Joseph Stella: Visionary Nature, October 15, 2022–September 24, 2023
Literature
Barbara Haskell, Joseph Stella, New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1994, p. 269, no. 155, illus. p. 155, as 1925Virginia M. Mecklenburg, Crosscurrents: Modern Art from the Sam Rose and Julie Walters Collection, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2015, p. 71, illus. p. 73
Stephanie Mayer Heydt, Ellen E. Roberts, Karli Wurzelbacher, Ara H. Merjian, and Audrey Lewis, Joseph Stella: Visionary Nature, Atlanta: High Museum of Art, 2022, p. 206, pl. 70, illus. in color p. 124, as 1925
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