Joseph Stella (Italian/New York, 1877-1946), "Still Life", oil on canvas, signed lower center, signed and titled en verso, signed and illegibly inscribed on stretcher, 10 in. x 11 in., framed, overall 15 in. x 15 3/4 in. x 2 3/4 in. Note: Born in Italy outside of Naples, Joseph Stella came to New York at the age of eighteen and immediately strayed from his original plans of becoming a doctor and instead pursued a career in modern art. Receiving a scholarship to study at the Arts Students League under William Merritt Chase and later Robert Henri, Stella refined his draftsmanship and use of composition under Chase’s strict tutelage. The greatest lesson he learned came from Henri and his advice to look for artistic subjects anywhere, “even the mundane.” This directive would serve Stella greatly in his observation of city life and the immigrant population he was part of at the time and led to the creation of some of his greatest canvases—particularly his series on the Brooklyn Bridge. After graduating from the Students League, Stella absorbed all he could about modern art studying Cubism, Fauvism and Dadaism, all the while still visiting and copying still lives of the great masters at the Museum of Modern Art—a favorite pastime of his mentor Chase. Stella discovered his preferred style after a meeting with fellow Italians Umbertto Boccioni and Gino Severini and his subsequent exposure to Futurism. Raised in a small village, the move New York was a culture shock he never got over, and Futurism expressed everything about the modern bustling metropolis he found fascinating: newness, dynamism, speed and the embrace of all things mechanical. After his participation in the infamous Armory Show of 1913, Stella became a fixture in American modern art scene befriending the likes of Alfred Stieglitz, Francis Picabia and Marcel Duchamp, whom he assisted on a trip to a plumbing wholesale store to purchase what would become one of Duchamp’s most famous sculptures. Throughout his career, Stella never lost the love for still lifes that he acquired from William Merritt Chase. His compositions were rooted in Futurist concepts, particularly the use of sharp lines (force lines) to lead the eye around the canvas. Stella also employed the bright strong colors he adapted from the Fauvists to complement the sense of rhythm and tension between his objects. His usage of heavy impasto blended with thin layers of paint was a method of brushwork taught to him by Chase as a means of adding depth and movement to the basic composition. The lot on offer here is a great example of these techniques showcasing the unique position Stella holds in American art as one who melded the teaching and academic processes of the nineteenth century with the new rebellious ideas of the twentieth.Ref.: Murawski, Michael. “Spotlight Essay: Joseph Stella”. Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum. Nov. 2008. www.kemperartmuseum.wustl.edu. Accessed Mar. 9, 2023.

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