Flowers in a White Vase
Artist
Brodhead, Quita
(American, 1901 - 2002)
Dateca. 1940
OriginUnited States of America
MediumOil on board
Dimensions32 × 36 in. (81.3 × 91.4 cm)
ClassificationsPainting
Credit LineGift of Carolyn K. and Richard F. Barry III
Object number2017.6
Label TextQuita Brodhead (American, 1901–2002)
Flowers in a White Vase
Oil on board, about 1940
Gift of Carolyn K. and Richard F. Barry III
Trained under Hugh Breckenridge at the Pennsylvania Academy of Art from 1919-1925, Quita Brodhead became an accomplished and prolific American modernist. Her most significant early influence was the painter and teacher Arthur B. Carles: not only did he introduce her to the European modernists exhibited at the nearby Barnes Foundation (Picasso, Cézanne, and Modigliani), but he also taught her to understand the importance of color to abstract expressionism. This still life, echoing the influence of Cézanne, was created in the 1940s, when her work became increasingly abstract. In 1949, she moved to France with her children to escape her failed marriage. Abroad, she would receive the professional acclaim that only came late in her life in the United States. A cutting-edge painter of her time, Brodhead remained true throughout her career to the modernist principles of abstract expressionism.
Status
On view
