Details

Title

Mexican Gourd Pitcher and Tulip Bud

Artist/Maker

Rebecca Salsbury (Strand) James (American, born England, 1891–1968)

Date

early 1930s

Medium

Oil on glass

Dimensions

19 3/4 x 11 5/8 inches

Credit

Purchase through prior acquisition from Elizabeth Berry Reid, 2005.214

Accession #

2005.214

Location

On View - Stent Family Wing, Level 3, Gallery 301

One of the few women artists in Alfred Stieglitz’s circle, Rebecca James began painting at the encouragement of her husband, photographer Paul Strand. On a trip to Taos, New Mexico, with Georgia O’Keeffe in the summer of 1929, James appropriated O’Keeffe’s use of a glass pane as a palette. Noticing the effects of light and color on the glass, James began to paint with oils in reverse on glass, which remained her preferred technique. Choosing glass and, later, embroidery—media that were common in American colonial folk art—James found her way to the forefront of experimental avant-garde expression.