Meet FLORINE STETTHEIMER... Artist Ahead of Her Time

Holiday House/NEAL PORTER BOOKS
2024

One artist ahead of her time was Florine Stettheimer, but then many artists are ahead of their times. I found, though, that this particular artist, previously unknown to me (despite my effort to be reasonably informed about artists of the twentieth century), was fascinating. A PARTY FOR FLORINE: FLORINE STETTHEIMER AND ME is the creation of another artist, author/illustrator Yevgenia Nayberg. 

The illustration style and the first person narrator are both an homage to Stettheimer and a reflection  of Nayberg's own artistic style. 

A short note in back reveals that even though an  accomplished and acclaimed artist such as she is, Nayberg found that Florine was a new experience and one she welcomed. 

In the text, a young girl sees a face, an image very much like herself, in a self-portrait by Stettheimer. The girl and the subject in the self-portrait were both artists, and the young observer commits to learning more. That storyline reveals Stettheimer's life story as shared within the remaining narration. 

Florine's life was one of means, one of intellectual pursuits, one surrounded by other remarkable women and intellectual discussions. When women were bound into corsets and equally so by social expectations and even demands, Florine had the luxury of expressing herself freely. She did so in her clothing choices and activities. Her art is expressionist in that there is realism in many elements and colors, but proportion, angle, position, and subject matter all reflect an almost dreamlike quality to her work. 

When I explored Nayberg's body of work, I detected many parallels in style, color, and perspective between their styles. That, too, must have been a bit of a startling recognition to the picture book creator. I particularly enjoyed learning in the author note that this unexpected introduction came to the artist as an adult, but the the story is well-crafted around the emotional journey of a young girl observer, who compares Florine's liberated, self-affirming life to her own young misery on gray rainy days and with nothing "exciting" happening to her. The line was never written but several of the girl's expressions called to mind a refrain any parent will recognize... "I'm bored!"

In fact, though, this narrator comes to realize her own agency, her ability to see the world around her through whatever lens invites creativity and joy and delight. Stettheimer proactively rejected the directives in her expensive art instructions from prestigious institutions and opted to interpret a recto-linear world with curves and tilts and graceful exaggeration. This is evident in examples you can view online. This recognition by the girl of her  own power removes the oppressive rainy filters and ignites joy. 

As much as this might feel like an adult-centric biography, the young narrator's emotional journey makes it well-suited to young readers, too. In fact, very young "artists" often ignore efforts to reproduce what they "see" on a page in favor of colorful, movement-infused, joyful art. Perhaps Florine's seemingly sophisticated talent was really her openness to expressing the world without rules, as children so often do. 

I urge you to take a look at this lovely new offering to meet Florine for yourselves. Please note that front and back endpapers reproduce the four pieces from her CATHEDRAL OF NEW YORK series, one she was working on until a few weeks before her death. The contagious joy they reveal invite you to join her at the party that was her life.