Florine Stettheimer
There are some paintings that when I see them, I just know they are so weird that they need to be published in DailyArt. This is one of them!
In the early decades of the 20th century, artists on both sides of the Atlantic—from Gertrude Stein to Charles Demuth—reconsidered traditional portraiture by exploring identity through symbols and visual metaphors. Rather than relying solely on physical likeness, they often suggested personality and character through carefully chosen imagery. During the 1920s, Florine Stettheimer created 17 highly original portraits of friends and relatives, surrounding each sitter with elements that reflected their interests, social roles, and inner lives.
One of her most notable subjects was Henry McBride, a leading art critic of the 1920s and 1930s, often called the “dean of art critics.” McBride played a major role in shaping public opinion about modern American art. He strongly supported Stettheimer and artists associated with Alfred Stieglitz, whom he believed best represented a distinctly American artistic spirit.
Stettheimer depicted a stylish, black-coated McBride standing alongside a reproduction of Winslow Homer’s Palm Tree, Nassau. At the top of the palm tree, a tiny version of McBride waves two flags—a motif she would later reuse in her Cathedrals of Art series. In those later works, the flags symbolized “STOP” and “GO,” suggesting his power to determine which artists gained institutional recognition. Here, however, he appears to wave the American flag, underscoring his support for traditional American painters such as Homer. The title Henry McBride on Winslow Homer functions as a visual and verbal pun, showing him literally standing on Homer’s work while also emphasizing his critical allegiance to it.
Paintings like this remind us that art is rarely just what we see at first glance. If you’d like to feel more confident decoding symbolism, hidden jokes, and visual metaphors like these, our How to Look at Art online course walks you step by step through the process of reading paintings with curiosity and clarity.
Have a great April, everyone!
P.S. As you can see, today we shared a unique artist that you need to know better: Florine Stettheimer in 10 paintings!