Bidspirit auction | Jane Peterson ”Zinnias” Still Life

Jane Peterson ”Zinnias” Still Life Painting - Jane Peterson (American, 1876-1965). Oil on board impressionist still life painting titled ”Zinnias, ” early 20th century. Depicting a fiery bouquet of red and orange zinnias accompanied by dark purple petunias arranged in a turquoise vase. Featuring bold, impasto brushstrokes along the petals and leaves creating a dynamic sense of texture. Set against a cool blue background, the still life bursts with intensely contrasting, colorful flowers. Signed along the lower left. With two Christie's labels adhered along the verso. Provenance: Christie's, New York, NY, ”American Watercolors, Drawings, Paintings and Sculpture of the 19th and 20th Centuries, ” September 30, 1988, Lot 350; The Distinguished Collection of Leo & Doris Hodroff. Lot Essay: Born in Elgin, Illinois, in 1876, Jane Peterson developed a lifelong fascination with color and the expressive qualities of landscape. She studied at the Pratt Institute and later at the Art Students League of New York, where she refined the Impressionist style that would define much of her career. Working in oil, watercolor, and gouache, Peterson became known for her luminous landscapes, still lifes, and scenes that captured the fleeting effects of light and atmosphere with bold, vibrant color. After completing her studies, Peterson traveled to Europe with her Pratt instructor, Henry Snell, and his wife, Florence. Rather than immediately returning to the United States, she remained abroad for more than fifteen years, traveling extensively through Venice, London, Egypt, Turkey, Spain, and other destinations. During this period, she studied with and was influenced by several prominent artists and cultural figures, including Frank Brangwyn, Jacques-Emile Blanche, Francis Hopkinson Smith, JoaquIn Sorolla y Bastida, and Gertrude Stein. These experiences broadened her artistic vision, encouraging a style that blended Impressionism with the bold color and expressive brushwork associated with Expressionism. Peterson returned to the United States in 1912 and soon joined the faculty of the Art Students League, where she taught from 1913 to 1919. Throughout her career, she painted vibrant still lifes, beach scenes along the Massachusetts coast, and landscapes inspired by her extensive travels, using broad areas of saturated color to capture spontaneous moments and shifting light. During her lifetime, Peterson was featured in more than eighty solo exhibitions and was elected a fellow of the National Academy of Design. Today, her work is represented in the collections of major museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of the City of New York, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Unframed; height: 18 in x width: 18 in. Framed; height: 23 1/4 in x width: 23 1/4 in x depth: 1 1/2 in. Condition: The painting is in good condition overall. There are some minor losses along the extreme upper right edge. No visible areas of restoration. Some soiling along the verso, wear to the frame.