Bean Sprouts

Artist: Rebecca Salsbury (Strand) James (American, born England, 1891 - 1968)

Date: circa 1934

Medium: Charcoal and wash on paper

Dimensions:

Image: 18 1/4 × 6 7/8 in. (46.4 × 17.5 cm)

Frame: 28 9/16 × 22 1/2 × 3/4 in. (72.5 × 57.2 × 1.9 cm)

Classification: Drawing

Credit Line: Gift of John Robertshaw III, 2014

Keywords and Associated Locations:

abstraction
botany
bean
food
vegetation
plants
vegetable gardens
gardens

Object number: 2014.7.7

Description

Captivated by her early visits to Taos, New Mexico, in the mid-1920s, Rebecca James often drew inspiration for her art from its landscape and the natural world. This abstract depiction of a growing bean plant, representing a traditional staple food of the city’s Hispano culture, is charming in its simplicity and directness. James celebrates this humble subject with graceful lines and bulging pods that enfold their hidden source of life and nutrition.

Not on view