bouquet of yellow, purple and white pansies in a round black vase; turquoise ground

Copyright of the artist%2C artist%27s estate%2C or assignees

Heartsease, c. 1920s

Color woodcut on Japan paperexpand_more

Gift of Marla J. Kinneyexpand_more  2017.71.1

Not on Viewexpand_more

Few American color woodcut pioneers could wrest soft petals from hard woodblocks as well as Margaret Patterson. She came of age in the very early years of the medium and made a specialty of garden flowers. Unusual for color woodcuts at the time, she did not outline her images, instead defining shapes by color alone. When inking this print, she rubbed the paper over her hand-cut wooden blocks so forcefully, she made indentations on the sheet, giving these pansies a three-dimensional quality.

Patterson was in the lineage of Arthur Wesley Dow, who introduced Japanese woodblock printing to America in the 1890s. She studied briefly with him in New York, but it was an artistic sisterhood that led her to color woodcut. She likely learned the technique from the American artist Ethel Mars, who in turn learned it from Dow’s student Edna Boies Hopkins.

Details
Title
Heartsease
Artist Life
American (born Java), 1867–1950
Role
Artist
Accession Number
2017.71.1
Provenance
Sale, Massachusetts auction, 2016 to Bakker; [James R. Bakker, Provincetown, Mass., 2016-2017]
Curator Approved

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bouquet of yellow, purple and white pansies in a round black vase; turquoise ground

Copyright of the artist, artist's estate, or assignees