This breathtaking scene by John White Alexander is simply titled June.John White Alexander was born near Pittsburgh but spent many years in Europe. Alexander specialized in decorative, lyrical images of women that are not necessarily portraits.
June Swoon
This breathtaking scene by John White Alexander is simply titled June.John White Alexander was born near Pittsburgh but spent many years in Europe. Alexander specialized in decorative, lyrical images of women that are not necessarily portraits.
Here, the title June may refer to the unidentified model, or it may suggest an allegorical scene of the early summer month. The painting's subtitle, "A Flower," could refer both to the beautiful young woman and to the blossom in the vase she holds.
Although June has no discernible narrative, the scene is suffused with a sense of mystery through its shadowy illumination, its evocation of the flower's fragrance, and its symbolic title.
The brushy handling of paint relates Alexander's work to impressionism, while his gift for bold patterning as a compositional device emerges in the dramatic juxtaposition of the contrasting vertical stripes at the right edge of the painting.
This and other treasures of American Impressionism from the Smithsonian American Art Museum are now on view in our traveling exhibition at the Portland Museum of Art in Maine.
Source: Elizabeth Prelinger. American Impressionism: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum (New York and Washington, D.C.: Watson-Guptill Publications, in cooperation with the Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2000).
Pictured: John White Alexander, 1856–1915, June, about 1911, oil, 49 x 36 1/8 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of William Alexander.