Nocturne

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Nocturne

Artist Joseph Stella American (born Italy), 1877-1946

Dateabout 1918

Dimensions23 1/4 x 17 15/16 in. (59 x 45.5 cm)

Mediumpastel and watercolor

ClassificationDrawings

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number

1953.51

Not on View

Collections

Works on Paper

Published ReferencesThe Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art, American Paintings, Toledo, 1979, pp. 102-103, pl. 160.

Kramer, Hilton, "The Critic's Eye: Visual Poetry, the Drawings of Joseph Stella," MD, Sept. 1990, p. 17, repr. p. 16 (col.), [article in VF, Library].

Moser, Joann, "Visual Poetry: the Drawings of Joseph Stella," Antiques, vol. 138, no. 5, Nov. 1990, p. 1063, pl. III (col.).

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 306, repr. (col.).

Heydt, Stephanie Mayer, et al., Joseph Stella: Visionary Nature, High Museum of Art Atlanta, DelMonico Books, D.A.P 2022, p. 38, pl. 22, (col.) p. 86, detail (col.) p. 34.

Exhibition HistoryMansfield, Mansfield Art Center, The American Landscape, 1981, no. 39.

Fort Worth, Amon Carter Museum; Boston, Museum of Fine Arts; Washington, National Museum of American Art, Visual Poetry: the Drawings of Joseph Stella, 1990, p. 50, 102, 148, no. 41, fig. 57 (col.) p. 52.

New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Joseph Stella, 1994, fig. 95, p. 79.

Atlanta, High Museum of Art, Joseph Stella: Visionary Nature, Feb. 24 - May 21, 2023.

Label TextJoseph Stella is most widely known for his abstracted, dynamic depictions of industrial and urban American scenes. Nocturne evokes a different quality. In music, a nocturne is a composition with a dreamy or pensive mood. Stella translated that definition into visual form in this simple but evocative pastel drawing of a receding road.