"Picnic at Bedford Hills," Florine Stettheimer, 1918.
Stettheimer (1871-1944) was an American painter, who was also a theatrical designer, writer, and all-around intellectual of early 20th century New York.
Born into a wealthy family, she was able to travel around Europe and America, eventually returning to New York where she designed opera sets, painted, and ran one of the city's most respected salons. (Not a beauty salon, but a discussion salon!)
She developed a highly individual Modernist style, often very representational but still with many unusual elements, like the yellow grass in this painting, which otherwise would be a straightforward depiction of a picnic. We know who they are...the women are Florine and her two sisters, Carrie and Ettie, and the men are sculptor Elie Nadelman and notorious avant-garde artist Marcel Duchamp. I wish I knew which was which, but it seems there's some beguiling stories to be told here...
From the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia.
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