Stella Steyn (1907-1987), Still LIfe of Hyacinth, Anemone and Apple

A large still life painting by Stella Steyn, depicting a pot and saucer with blue hyacinths, a vase of cut-flowers, St Brigid's anemone (Anemone coronaria) and an apple. Is this a straighforward still life, or something more allegorical, given that each of these items has a certain degree of symbolic meaning.

Stella Steyn (1907-1987) is an interesting figure in the Irish art world. She studied at the Metropolitan Art School (now the National College of Art and Design), and subsequently, like many Irish modernists, in Paris. In the early 1930s she spent one year as a student in the Bauhaus, being the only Irish person to have studied there. Artists such as Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky were amongst her tutors. A certain aspect of their pallet and 'minimalism' is visible evn in her later work. In Paris she was part of the circle of Samuel Beckett and James Joyce, who commissioned her to illustrate the first (serialised) edition of Finnegans Wake. Her work was exhibited in the Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin (1927-30), the Royal Academy, London (1952-59), as well as in many commercial galleries around the world.

In a New York Times article of 1929 she was hailed as  on of the 'leading Irish figures of Modern Art' alongside Paul Henry, Harry Clarke and Sean Keating. She died in London in 1987.

Oil on canvas, 57 x 58cm excluding frame and mount. Framed size. 79 x 70cm. Studio sale stamp on reverse. Newly reframed.