My Landscape II

Joan Mitchell, My Landscape II, 1967, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. David K. Anderson, Martha Jackson Memorial Collection, 1980.137.82
Copied Joan Mitchell, My Landscape II, 1967, oil on canvas, 103 x 71 1⁄2 in. (261.6 x 181.6 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. David K. Anderson, Martha Jackson Memorial Collection, 1980.137.82

Artwork Details

Title
My Landscape II
Artist
Date
1967
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
103 x 71 1⁄2 in. (261.6 x 181.6 cm.)
Credit Line
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. David K. Anderson, Martha Jackson Memorial Collection
Mediums
Mediums Description
oil on canvas
Classifications
Subjects
  • Abstract
  • Landscape
Object Number
1980.137.82
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1980.137.82

Artwork Description

My Landscape II conveys the sense of a tall window flung open to the world outside, but the vantage point is an interior one—literally, as though through a window, and metaphorically, as if envisioned in memory. In 1967, Mitchell bought a two-acre estate on a hillside overlooking the Seine in Vétheuil, about forty miles north of Paris. The view from the house was magnificent—from the narrow terrace, Mitchell could see the river—and the effect on her work was immediate and powerful. She said of Vétheuil, “It’s a secure landscape, not desperate. I’ve chosen one you can live in.”

Modern Masters: Midcentury Abstraction from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2008