Florine Stettheimer
(August 19, 1871 – May 11, 1944)
There is a piece of art at the Whitney Museum of American Art that may be the reason I renew my membership each year. It’s a painting by Florine Stettheimer called “New York – Liberty”. It’s a fantastically skewed perspective of the lowest part of Manhattan, the Battery, where I’ve been calling home since 2012. It was painted to commemorate the end of World War 1, and during her homecoming from Munich in 1914, she wrote the following:
“Then back to New York
And skytowers had begun to grow
And front stoop houses started to go
And life became quite different
And it was as tho’ someone had planted seeds
And people sprouted like common weeds
And seemed unaware of accepted things
And out of it grew an amusing thing
Which I think is America having its fling
And what I should like is to paint this thing.”
This painting reminds me of that exact feeling of New York City constantly changing right before your eyes if you look away for just a moment.
Lady Liberty is always here though, a main focal point, as in this painting, the gold folds of her dresses modeled in high relief.
She designed the wood frame of red, white, and blue rope with gold tassels to resemble a veteran’s honor cord, and crowned the glorious piece with a gold bald eagle. The flag seems to be waving, and stokes the proud patriotism of a New Yorker.
New York – Liberty
Back in February, I was wandering around vintage shop in Bushwick and found this mirror that reminded so much of Florine’s frame. I brought it home and hung it on my wall.
The point of art is sometimes self discovery. You connect with the beauty and find yourself within it.
Florine’s fascinating story makes me yearn for a similar lifelong profession of entertaining myself. The one solo show she had during her lifetime generated unenthusiastic reviews and no sales. It seems that this caused her to withdraw, reserving her showings to her inner circle and seldom allowing sales. With this amount of privacy, her talents developed according to her own whims, and she even painted history’s first known nude self-portrait by a woman.
My second favorite piece by Florine is Love Flight of a Pink Candy Heart, on display at the Detroit Institute of Arts. The painting captures this notion I have of her living in a state of self-wonder and being an excellent audience to herself, perched on a balcony, looking down at her friends and lovers.
Here is the poem Florine wrote on the back:
My romance Past NY
House Party Eden, New York
In Memory of a Sugar Coated Heart
My House on Paradise
Beautiful Yong men
I have known
Paradise, NY
House Party Eden N. York
April 1930
Love Flight of a Pink Candy Heart
Between 1929 and 1942, Florine created the four “Cathedrals” of Manhattan. With a bit of satire, she captures New York’s most iconic economic, social, and cultural institutions.
To do:
Stettheimer Dollhouse at the Museum of the City of New York made by Florine’s sister, Carrie Walter Stettheimer.
