In 1922 Joseph Stella revisited his native Italy and became fascinated by Renaissance painting. After returning to New York, he began to produce detailed, symbolic compositions such as A Vision, which was originally a mural commission. Stella was enthralled by the tropical plants he observed at the Bronx Botanical Garden, and here he imagined a woman growing out of the earth like the exotic flowers on either side of her. This painting’s fantastical subject also aligns it with modern art, particularly the dreamlike imagery of Surrealism.
Date
Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.
Through prior gift of the Albert Kunstadter Family Foundation
Reference Number
1990.79
Extended information about this artwork
“Dudensing Shows Stella’s New York” Art News 24, 28 (April 17, 1926), 1, 7.
“Women’s Art Strikes Distinctive Note,” New York Times Magazine, April 18, 1928, 15.
Ferdinando Santoro, “Giuseppe Stella”, Italiani pel mondo: rivista mensile illustrata I, no. 6 (Aug. 1928), 803 (ill.)
Ferdinando Santoro, “Le mostre di arte di ‘Italiani pel mondo’”, Italiani pel mondo: rivista mensile illustrata, Mar.-Apr. 1929, 333 (ill.)
Irma B. Jaffe, Joseph Stella, rev. ed., (New York: Fordham University Press, 1988), 97, 103, 127.
Barbara Haskell, Joseph Stella, exh. cat. (New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1994), 143, 150, (ill.), fig. 174, 146.
Judith A. Barter et al., American Modernism at the Art Institute of Chicago, From World War I to 1955 (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2009), cat. 44.
New York, F. Valentine Dudensing, Joseph Stella, Apr. 10–30, 1926, cat. 6.
New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Joseph Stella, Apr. 22–Oct. 9, 1994, unnumbered checklist, fig. 174.
Estate of the artist; descended in the family to 1986; sold, Sotheby’s, Dec. 4, 1986, lot 267. Sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1990.
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