Heat by Florine Stettheimer in the Brooklyn Museum, May 2011

Artist: Florine Stettheimer

Title: Heat

Date: 1919

Medium: Oil on canvas

Classification: Painting

Dimensions: 50 x 36 1/2in. (127 x 92.7cm) frame: 56 1/2 x 43 in. (143.5 x 109.2 cm)

Credit Line: Gift of the Estate of Ettie Stettheimer

Accession Number: 57.125


Florine Stettheimer captured the dynamic social worlds of her intimate circle of family and friends, many of whom were artists and members of New York’s avant-garde. This whimsical portrait was inspired by a birthday celebration for Stettheimer’s mother at the family’s summer retreat in Bedford Hills, New York. Stettheimer’s interest in theater and set design is apparent through the arrangement of a stagelike space composed of horizontal bands of color. The blazing hues, coupled with the lithe bodies of the women and the wilted tree branches in the background, evoke the summer heat described in the painting’s title.

Text from: www.brooklynmuseum.org/objects/1165