WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART VISUAL ANALYSIS
SUN, 1931
FLORINE STETTHEIMER (1871–1944)
On the 8th floor of the Whitney Museum of American Art, Florine Stettheimer's Sun would undoubtedly be the most eye-catching painting one would notice upon entering the gallery. The painting was made in 1931 in New York City, and it is one of the only two pieces by Stettheimer in the Whitney's possession, the other being New York – Liberty (1919). Standing on a portrait canvas, Sun depicts a rather surrealistic version of Stettheimer's sixtieth birthday bouquet above a garden against a softly-lit backdrop of the Hudson River with delicate strokes of oil paint. It is settled in a white frame, personally designed by Stettheimer to mimic the texture and image of lace.
​
In a painting which so many details, such as this one, it's easy to get lost in them, so it's easiest to start analyzing it from its most prominent features, such as its subject. The main subject of this whimsical painting, contrary to its name, is not the Sun, but actually a floral arrangement. In fact, there is no physical image of the Sun in the piece at all. Instead, a red-orange flower takes center stage, pulling much of the visual weight onto it and the other colorful
flowers in the bouquet. This weight comes from Stettheimer's use of color contrast. While the background of the piece uses cool tones, such as blue and green, most of the bouquet is made of much warmer colors. There is a red-orange flower, a flower with a dark pistil and yellow-orange petals, a flower that is dark maroon, one that is wine purple, some with golden petals, and two that are a mix of red and white. All of these mentioned flowers contrast the painting's much lighter background and make it appear more vibrantly than the other elements. Stettheimer also weaves neutral-toned, primarily white, flowers around the rich focal flowers as secondary flowers and foliage framing them, and she blends them into the reflection of sunlight on the Hudson River.
Stettheimer also contributes to the visual weight to the center of the bouquet by using the techniques of scale changes and positioning. The way that she makes the bouquet seem so much bigger than the ferry or buildings in the background indicates that the bouquet is a lot closer in the scene than those objects using
scale changes. Then, the way she positions that handle of the flower bouquet closer to the bottom of the canvas than the clouds also alludes to how the flowers are much closer to the audience than the clouds, at the top of the canvas, would be. Stettheimer also uses atmospheric perspective to emphasize the depth of the painting by focusing the attention on the bouquet and making it appear sharper than the background behind it. The Hudson River and the landmass across the river appear to be blurry and simply smudges of paint. The arbor, covered by greenery, standing between the flowers and the river, also appears to be unfocused. These levels of sharpness indicate that the flowers are the closest from the perspective of the audience and the land across the river is the furthest from it. Stettheimer also composes the river and the land across the river with completely cool tones. The land is made up of shades of blue, despite the fact that in reality, it would not be blue. Elements such as the flower bouquet and the terrace appear in much vibrant and warm tones, giving the illusion that they are closer. This color element is also part of the technique of
atmospheric perspective.
The second quite noticeable element in this painting is the snake-like figure entwining itself around the bouquet's ribbon-wrapped handle. Stettheimer emphasizes this element the uniqueness of its shape and how ​there are no other elements in the painting with a three-dimensional coiling shape like the one around the bouquet. This pulls some of the visual weight of the painting onto it. This three-dimensional illusion was made by Stettheimer’s strokes and shading of the bottom side of the figure to give it depth. This shading also makes the pink cream colored figure stand out among ground, which is a similar color, and the patch of green behind it. It is also the only figure in the painting that both overlaps something and is overlapped by that same object, which in this case is the handle. Its overlapping of the handle makes it seem like it’s the closest object in the canvas, so it appears to be more distinct among the rest of the painting.
​
Beyond these elements that are observable upon first glance, Stettheimer also laced many details into the background. Of these details, some of the more striking ones are the typography that she adds around the prominent elements of the painting. On coil-like figure around the handle of the bouquet, Stettheimer incorporates, her name, “FLORINE S” onto it in light blue lettering. Then, in the same font, she writes “1931,” the year she made this painting, onto the center of the bow made by that figure. Finally, the last major detail that Stettheimer incorporates with typography is on the green patch of grass, which partially seems to read “SUN,” though the full word is obstructed by the presence of the bouquet. In terms of tangible elements, she also cleverly details a woman, possibly Stettheimer herself, lounging under the arbor, facing the city’s
buildings.
​
In regards to the title of the piece, Sun, while Stettheimer does not use a physical image of the Sun in the painting, she does include the Sun’s indirect presence in it. The light seems to be coming from the right side of the painting and angled towards the left side of the painting, seeing as how there seems to be white rays coming from the top right and how the river is much lighter on the left side than the right. This lighter section of the river is most likely done to mimic the light reflecting off of the water.
While Sun appears to depict a realistic subject, the way that Stettheimer uses her brush techniques and her color palette, it appears to leaning towards a surrealistic interpretation of a real subject. There is an undeniable mixture of reality and Stettheimer’s distorted view of the scene, which is drawn from someone looking down at the terrace. There seems to be no division to the left side of the terrace and the greenery surrounding the buildings in the cityscape. Instead, the terrace’s ground abruptly ends, like a cliff, and is replaced by trees. The terrace on the right side, where the woman is lounging also seems to have no form of barrier between it and the river, which supposedly lies under it. The way that Stettheimer makes most of the painting feel very two-dimensional instead of having each individual object have a depth to it, though there is depth in the painting itself, also creates the illusion that the scene is melting and blending into itself. There are no explicit edges between the cityscape, the terrace, or the river next to it.
​
Overall, Sun is a beautifully, detail-loaded painting that can be interpreted in countless ways and many elements in the paintings can be seen as another. The figure around the bouquet handle is a great example of that. Some could easily call it a ribbon, others may see it as a rope, snake, or even as a dollar sign. Outside of the painting, even the frame is unmissable while visiting its gallery. The frame, with a cross-hatch texture, can be seen as lace trim around the painting. It can also be interpreted as the Sun’s rays protruding from the painting being the Sun and the center of the entire piece. Sun by Florine Stettheimer is one of my favorite pieces at the Whitney Museum of American Art and I think it is one a must-see when visiting.
​
​
Citations:
​
Dobuler, Zoe. “99 Objects: Nick Mauss on Sun by Florine Stettheimer.” 99 Objects: Nick Mauss on Sun by Florine Stettheimer | Whitney Museum of American Art, https://whitney.org/education/education-blog/99-objects-mauss-on-stettheimer.
​
Schjeldahl, Peter. “Revisiting Florine Stettheimer's Place in Art History.” The New Yorker, 8 May 2017, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/05/15/revisiting-florine-stettheimers-place-in-art-history.
​
Whitney Museum of American Art. “Florine Stettheimer: Sun.” Florine Stettheimer | Sun | Whitney Museum of American Art, https://whitney.org/collection/works/2997.
​
​