Irises and Calla Lilies

between ca. 1890 and 1905

Maria Oakey Dewing American, 1845-1927

On View

American, Level 2, West Wing

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About the Artwork

Although Maria Oakey Dewing had shown an interest in figure painting early in her career, she turned her attention to flower painting following her marriage in 1881 to the artist Thomas Dewing. Her floral subjects were painted both indoors and outdoors in the garden she and her husband maintained at their summer home in Cornish, New Hampshire. Irises and Calla Lilies is remarkable for its fusion of intensely observed detail with decorative compositional elements, showing her awareness of Japanese art

Title Irises and Calla Lilies

Artwork Date between ca. 1890 and 1905

Artist Maria Oakey Dewing

Life Dates 1845-1927

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. American

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. ----------

Medium Oil on panel

Dimensions Unframed: 16 1/2 × 13 1/2 inches (41.9 × 34.3 cm) Framed: 21 3/4 × 18 3/4 × 1 15/16 inches (55.3 × 47.6 × 4.9 cm)

Classification Paintings

Department American Art before 1950

Credit Founders Society Purchase, Dexter M. Ferry Jr. Fund

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 1991.112

Markings

Signed Signed, lower right, verso: Maria Oakey Dewing

Provenance

Stanford White.
associate of Stanford White.
descendant of August Belmont.
1962, George Guerry.
1968-1987, Mr. and Mrs. George J. Arden (New York, New York, USA);
1987, Berry-Hill Galleries (New York, New York, USA);
1991-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

For more information on provenance, please visit:

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Exhibition History

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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

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Published References

American Flower Painting, 1850-1950. Exh. cat., ACA Galleries. New York, 1978, no. 26. [as Iris]

Foshay, Ella Milbank. "Nineteenth-Century American Flower Painting and the Botanical Sciences." Ph.D. diss., Columbia University. New York, 1979, p. 287, no. 50.

American Painting V. Berry-Hill Galleries. New York, 1988.

American Paintings in the Detroit Institute of Arts, Volume 2. New York, 1996, pp. 64-66 (ill.).

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Catalogue Raisoneé

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Credit Line for Reproduction

Maria Oakey Dewing, Irises and Calla Lilies, between ca. 1890 and 1905, oil on panel. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, Dexter M. Ferry Jr. Fund, 1991.112.