In this series of four monumental paintings executed between 1929 and 1942, Stettheimer created extraordinary composite visions of New York’s economic, social, and cultural institutions. The Cathedrals of Art is a fantastical portrait of the New York art world. Microcosms of three of the city’s major museums and their collections are watched over by their directors: the Museum of Modern Art (upper left), The Metropolitan Museum of Art (center), and the Whitney Museum of American Art (upper right). A gathering of art critics, dealers, and photographers of the day, including Stettheimer herself (lower right), appears around the Metropolitan’s grand staircase. See MMA 53.24.2, 53.24.3, and 53.24.4 for the other three paintings in the series.
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Artwork Details
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Title:The Cathedrals of Art
Artist:Florine Stettheimer (American, Rochester, New York 1871–1944 New York, New York)
Date:1942
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:60 1/4 × 50 1/4 in. (153 × 127.6 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Gift of Ettie Stettheimer, 1953
Accession Number:53.24.1
Inscription: Signed (upper left): FLORINE / S; dated (center): 19 42; inscribed (verso, on stretcher): OUR / DAWN OF ART 1941 FS 11 DECEMBER
the artist, New York (1942–d. 1944); her sister, Ettie Stettheimer, New York (1944–53; her gift to MMA)
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Florine Stettheimer," October 1–November 17, 1946, unnumbered cat. (p. 52; as "Cathedrals of Art [unfinished]," lent by Miss Ettie Stettheimer, New York).
Hartford, Conn. Wadsworth Atheneum. "Florine Stettheimer," January 9–February 1, 1948, no catalogue.
Poughkeepsie, N. Y. Vassar College Art Gallery. "Florine Stettheimer," January 1949, no catalogue.
Northampton, Mass. Smith College Museum of Art. "Paintings by Florine Stettheimer," March 3–21, 1952, no catalogue.
New York. Durlacher Bros. "Florine Stettheimer: Her Family, Her Friends," October 29–November 23, 1963, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Three Centuries of American Painting," April 9–October 17, 1965, unnum. checklist.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "American Paintings, Drawings and Watercolors from the Museum's Collections," October 1–December 7, 1969, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The 10s, the 20s, the 30s: Inventive Clothes, 1909–1939," December 13, 1973–September 3, 1974, not in catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Tribute to a Curator: Robert Beverly Hale," November 16, 1978–March 4, 1979, extended to March 18, 1979, unnum. checklist.
Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels. "Peinture américaine, 1920–1940 (Amerikaanse schilderkunst, 1920–1940)," November 10–December 30, 1979, no. 21.
Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston. "Florine Stettheimer: Still Lifes, Portraits and Pageants, 1910 to 1942," March 4–April 27, 1980, no. 32 (as "Cathedrals of Art").
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "New York City," January 12–July 1, 1990, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "14 Americans," July 16, 1990–January 2, 1991, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "American Painting: 1905–1950," April 19–October 7, 1991, no catalogue.
Turin. Galleria Lingotto. "Arte Americana, 1930–1970," January 11–March 31, 1992, unnumbered cat. (p. 147, as "Cathedral of Art").
Katonah, N. Y. Katonah Museum of Art. "Friends and Family: Portraiture in the World of Florine Stettheimer," September 19–November 28, 1993, unnumbered cat. (fig. 9).
New York. Whitney Museum of American Art. "Florine Stettheimer: Manhattan Fantastica," July 13–November 5, 1995, unnumbered cat. (p. 31; as "Cathedrals of Art").
Jewish Museum, New York. "Jewish Women and Their Salons: The Power of Conversation," March 4–July 10, 2005, unnumbered cat. (fig. 140).
Henry McBride. "Florine Stettheimer: A Reminiscence." View 5 (October 1945), p. 15.
Henry McBride. Florine Stettheimer. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art. New York, 1946, pp. 52–53, 55, ill.
Edward Alden Jewell. "Stettheimer Art in Memorial Show." New York Times (October 2, 1946), p. 27.
Betty Burroughs. "Of Art and Artists: Florine Stettheimer. By Henry McBride." New York Times (April 20, 1947), p. BR16.
Esther I. Seaver. "Florine Stettheimer and the Gay Twenties." Wadsworth Atheneum Bulletin (January 1948), p. 1.
Parker Tyler. Florine Stettheimer: A Life in Art. New York, 1963, pp. 31, 45–46, 52, 59–60, 63, 66, 68, 72–78, 106, 109, 114, 149, 152–54, 181, 184, 186, ill. opp. pp. 114 (detail) and 163.
Vivien Raynor. "In the Galleries: Florine Stettheimer." Arts Magazine 38 (December 1963), p. 63.
Anthony Bower. "Florine Stettheimer." Art in America 52, no. 2 (April 1964), p. 90, ill.
Henry Geldzahler. American Painting in the Twentieth Century. New York, 1965, pp. 126–27, ill.
Barbara Zucker. "An 'Autobiography of Visual Poems'." Art News 76 (February 1977), pp. 69, 71–73, ill. p. 68 (color).
Hilton Kramer. "Art View: Florine Stettheimer's Distinctive Vision of Society." New York Times (March 16, 1980), p. D42.
Linda Nochlin. "Florine Stettheimer: Rococo Subversive." Art in America 68 (September 1980), pp. 73, 75, 78, 81, 83 n. 38, fig. 27 (color), dates it 1942–44.
Andy Warhol and Pat Hackett. POPism: The Warhol '60s. New York, 1980, p. 16.
Elisabeth Sussman. Florine Stettheimer: Still Lifes, Portraits and Pageants, 1910 to 1942. Exh. cat., Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston. [Boston], 1980, unpaginated, no. 32, fig. 20.
Robert McDaniel in Elisabeth Sussman. Florine Stettheimer: Still Lifes, Portraits and Pageants, 1910 to 1942. Exh. cat., Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston. [Boston], 1980, unpaginated.
Donna Graves. "'In Spite of Alien Temperature and Alien Insistence': Emily Dickinson and Florine Stettheimer." Woman's Art Journal 3 (Autumn 1982–Winter 1983), pp. 25, 27, fig. 2, erroneously locates it in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Charlotte Streifer Rubinstein. American Women Artists from Early Indian Times to the Present. Boston, 1982, p. 194.
Maureen Mullarkey. "Tuesday at the Met." Hudson Review 40 (Summer 1987), pp. 199–200.
Roberta Smith. "Shifting Art Scene Gets Fresh Venues." New York Times (September 11, 1987), p. C23, ill. p. C1 (installation photo).
Thomas Bender. New York Intellect: A History of Intellectual Life in New York City, from 1750 to the Beginnings of Our Own Time. New York, 1987, pp. 327–38.
Mark Lancaster. "Andy Warhol Remembered." Burlington Magazine 131 (March 1989), p. 200.
Avis Berman. Rebels on Eighth Street: Juliana Force and the Whitney Museum of American Art. New York, 1990, pp. 461–63, ill., calls it "Cathedrals of Art" and dates it 1942–44.
Donald Goddard. American Painting. New York, 1990, p. 178.
Eleanor Heartney. "Looking at Art. Florine Stettheimer: Saints, Esthetes, and Hustlers." Art News 90 (May 1991), pp. 95–96, ill. (color, overall and detail).
Jerry Saltz. "Notes on a Painting. Twilight of the Gods: Florine Stettheimer's 'Cathedrals of Art,' 1942." Arts Magazine 66 (March 1992), pp. 21–22, ill. (color).
Barbara Bloemink. Friends and Family: Portraiture in the World of Florine Stettheimer. Exh. cat., Katonah Museum of Art. Katonah, N. Y., 1993, pp. 16–19, 21 n. 41, p. 23, fig. 9, dates it about 1942–44 in the text, and 1942 in the caption.
Vivien Raynor. "A Rogues' Gallery of Artists and Esthetes." New York Times (October 24, 1993), p. WC18.
Ingrid Schaffner. "The World of Florine Stettheimer." Art & Antiques 15 (December 1993), p. 97.
C. N. "Art Between the Wars. 'Friends and Family: Portraiture in the World of Florine Stettheimer'." Women Artists News Book Review 19 (Spring 1994), p. 35.
Elisabeth Sussman inFlorine Stettheimer: Manhattan Fantastica. Exh. cat., Whitney Museum of American Art. New York, 1995, pp. 50, 52, 62, 128, 141, ill. p. 31 (color).
Barbara Bloemink inFlorine Stettheimer: Manhattan Fantastica. Exh. cat., Whitney Museum of American Art. New York, 1995, pp. 90–93.
Linda Nochlin inFlorine Stettheimer: Manhattan Fantastica. Exh. cat., Whitney Museum of American Art. New York, 1995, pp. 107–8, 112–14, 116 n. 38.
Roberta Smith. "Extreme Artifice Directly From Life (in New York Between the Wars)." New York Times (July 21, 1995), p. C18.
Barbara Bloemink. The Life and Art of Florine Stettheimer. New Haven, 1995, pp. 168, 183, 214, 221, 223–30, figs. 122 (color), 124 (detail), dates it 1942–44 and notes that the artist originally titled it "Our Dawn of Art".
Roger Kimball. "Florine Stettheimer at the Whitney." Modern Painters 8 (Autumn 1995), p. 98.
Jed Perl. "Jazz Age Pastoral." New Republic 213 (October 2, 1995), p. 42.
Mario Naves. "Art: 'Florine Stettheimer: Manhattan Fantastica'." New Criterion 14 (September 1995), pp. 48, 50–51.
Hilton Kramer. "Critic's Notebook: Stettheimer Primer." Art & Antiques 18 (September 1995), p. 86.
Stephen May. "Florine Stettheimer: Whitney Museum of American Art." Art News 94 (November 1995), p. 244.
John Loughery. "American Treasures: Whistler, Stettheimer, Scully." Hudson Review 48 (Winter 1996), pp. 652–53, misdates it 1919.
Ann Lee Morgan. "Florine Stettheimer." Art Journal 55 (Summer 1996), p. 93.
Trevor Winkfield. "Very Rich Hours." Art in America 84 (January 1996), p. 66.
Barbara Haskell. The American Century: Art and Culture, 1900–1950. Exh. cat., Whitney Museum of American Art. New York, 1999, p. 137.
Nancy Mowll Mathews. "Review: 'The Life and Art of Florine Stettheimer'; 'Florine Stettheimer: Manhattan fantastica'." Woman's Art Journal 20 (Spring/Summer 1999), p. 56.
David Jacobson. "Review of Books: Operatic Modernism." Art in America 87 (September 1999), p. 37.
Cécile Whiting. "Decorating with Stettheimer and the Boys." American Art 14 (Spring 2000), pp. 40–41, 43.
Pamela Wye. "Florine Stettheimer: Eccentric Power, Invisible Tradition." M / E / A / N / I / N / G: An Anthology of Artists' Writings, Theory, and Criticism. Ed. Susan Bee and Mira Schor. Durham, N.C., 2000, pp. 375–76, 382.
Steven Watson and Catherine Morris, ed. An Eye on the Modern Century: Selected Letters of Henry McBride. New Haven, 2000, pp. 12–13, fig. 4, date it about 1942–44.
Helen Langa. "Review. Recent Feminist Art History: An American Sampler." Feminist Studies 30 (Fall 2004), p. 716, fig. 2.
Klaus-Dieter Gross. "Four Saints in Three Arts: V. Thomson's, G. Stein's, and F. Stettheimer's Portraits of Each Other." AAA: Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik 29, no. 2 (2004), p. 212 n. 14.
Emily D. Bilski and Emily Braun. Jewish Women and Their Salons: The Power of Conversation. Exh. cat., Jewish Museum, New York. New Haven, 2005, pp. 137, 240 n. 86, fig. 140 (color), date it 1942–44.
J. D. Biersdorfer. "Close Reading: Talking Among Themselves." New York Times (April 17, 2005), p. A27, ill. (color).
Roberta Smith. "The Tough-Talking Godmother of Downtown Art." New York Times (December 26, 2006), p. E11.
Rebecca Hart. "Love Flight of a Pink Candy Heart: Flights of Fancy." Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts 83, no. 1/4 (2009), p. 75, dates it 1944.
H. Alexander Rich. "Rediscovering Florine Stettheimer (Again): The Strange Presence and Absence of a New York Art World Mainstay." Woman's Art Journal 32 (Fall/Winter 2011), pp. 24, 27–29, colorpl. 10.
Lara Susan Kuykendall. "'By Popular Demand': The Hero in American Art, c. 1929–1945." PhD diss., University of Kansas, 2011, pp. 19–20, 41, fig. 1-4, dates it 1942–44.
Katherine Hoffman. Alfred Stieglitz: A Legacy of Light. New Haven, 2011, p. 183.
Jarrett Earnest. "Florine Stettheimer—Hieroglyphs of Pleasure." brooklynrail.org. March 2012.
Megan Brandow-Faller. "Feminine Vessels: The Ceramic Sculpture of Vally Wieselthier." Woman's Art Journal 35 (Fall/Winter 2014), p. 35 n. 6.
Karin Althaus and Susanne Böller inFlorine Stettheimer. Ed. Matthias Mühling, Karin Althaus, and Susanne Böller. Exh. cat., Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau. Munich, 2014, pp. 34, 36.
Karin Althaus inFlorine Stettheimer. Ed. Matthias Mühling, Karin Althaus, and Susanne Böller. Exh. cat., Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau. Munich, 2014, pp. 63–64, 74, fig. 48 (color).
Jutta Koether inFlorine Stettheimer. Ed. Matthias Mühling, Karin Althaus, and Susanne Böller. Exh. cat., Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau. Munich, 2014, pp. 164, 166.
Richard Meyer. "Changing Partners: Richard Meyer on 'Reimagining Modernism' at the Met." Artforum 54 (November 2015), p. 146, ill. (color).
Roberta Smith. "A Trans-Atlantic View of Modernism." New York Times (January 9, 2015), p. C30.
Stephen Brown inFlorine Stettheimer: Painting Poetry. Exh. cat., Jewish Museum, New York. New York, 2017, pp. 30, 40, 45 n. 30, ill. p. 127 (color).
Georgiana Uhlyarik inFlorine Stettheimer: Painting Poetry. Exh. cat., Jewish Museum, New York. New York, 2017, pp. 47–48.
Lucy Ives. "The Repatriation of F$." Art in America 105 (September 2017), pp. 96, 100–101, ill. (color).
Joan Snyder. "Florine Stettheimer's 'Cathedrals' Paintings." The Artist Project: What Artists See When They Look at Art. Ed. Chris Noey. New York, 2017, pp. 214–15, ill. (color).
Roberta K. Tarbell. "'Florine Stettheimer: Painting and Poetry'; 'Marguerite Zorach: An Art-Filled Life'." Woman's Art Journal 39, no. 1 (2018), pp. 46, 48 n. 7.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. New York, 2019, p. 404, ill. (color).
Barbara Bloemink. "Florine Stettheimer for the Twenty-First Century: Moving Beyond the Marginalizing Myths." Florine Stettheimer: New Directions in Multimodal Modernism. Ed. Irene Gammel and Suzanne Zelazo. Toronto, 2019, pp. 24, 36–37, 268 n. 26.
Irene Gammel and Chelsea Olsen. "Configuring a Feminist Sisterhood: The Case of Ettie's Memorializing." Florine Stettheimer: New Directions in Multimodal Modernism. Ed. Irene Gammel and Suzanne Zelazo. Toronto, 2019, p. 94.
Patricia Allmer. "Temporalities: Stettheimer's Baroque Modernism." Florine Stettheimer: New Directions in Multimodal Modernism. Ed. Irene Gammel and Suzanne Zelazo. Toronto, 2019, pp. 100–101, 106, 114.
Jason Wang. "Miss Flutterby: Florine Stettheimer's Dispassionate Flâneuse and Subversive Urban Consumer." Florine Stettheimer: New Directions in Multimodal Modernism. Ed. Irene Gammel and Suzanne Zelazo. Toronto, 2019, pp. 211, 216–19, 287 n. 28, fig. 10.4 (color).
Irene Gammel and Suzanne Zelazo. "'An Opera to be Sung': Intermediality and the Making of 'Four Saints in Three Acts'." Florine Stettheimer: New Directions in Multimodal Modernism. Ed. Irene Gammel and Suzanne Zelazo. Toronto, 2019, pp. 242, 289 n. 47.
Georgiana Uhlyarik. "Curating Florine Stettheimer: Reflections on an Exhibition." Florine Stettheimer: New Directions in Multimodal Modernism. Ed. Irene Gammel and Suzanne Zelazo. Toronto, 2019, p. 270 n. 28.
Barbara Bloemink. Florine Stettheimer: A Biography. Munich, 2021, pp. 273, 276, 293, 357, 360–65, 374, 379, 381, 387, 420 n. 41, fig. 118 (color), dates it 1942–44.
Helen A. Cooper. "Celebrating and Satirizing New York's Aesthetes." Wall Street Journal (April 10–11, 2021), p. C20, ill. (color).
Karen Chernick. "Books. Review: New Biography of Artist Florine Stettheimer Looks Beyond Her Seductively Bright Colours to the Social Commentary Beneath." theartnewspaper.com. February 3, 2022.
Ellsworth Kelly (American, Newburgh, New York 1923–2015 Spencertown, New York)
1963
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