Portrait of a Hatless Woman
Joseph Stella
American, 1877–1946
c. 1900, printed 1960
An intimate etching in which Joseph Stella uses quick, varied lines to render a woman's profile and capture the immediacy of a life study.
What strikes you is the restless, sketchy line that shapes her tumbling hair and dark cloak, the small, textured portrait plate seeming to float within a wide field of blank paper.
An early work from about 1900, this etching shows Stella's mastery of line and tone and links traditional portrait printmaking to the more experimental, modernist approach he later brought to American art.
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
plate: 6 1/2 x 5 1/4" (16.5 x 13.4 cm); sheet: 14 15/16 x 11 1/8" (37.9 x 28.3 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of Bernard Rabin and Nathan Krueger
Accession
48.1961
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
