Artist:
Peter Paone
(b. 1936)
Sunflowers
Medium: etching and aquatint on paper
Date: 1963
Dimensions:
25 1/2 x 18 3/4 in. (64.8 x 47.6 cm.)
Accession number: 2023.13.9
Curatorial RemarksFlowers have been a subject in his work since Peter Paone (b. 1936) was a teenager. Sunflowers are of particular interest, one that he traces to the careful study of those by Georges Braque (1882-1963). Paone’s adoption of the tondo, or circular format, frequently employed in European art of the fifteenth to the early seventeenth century, and the bird’s-eye perspective suggest viewing the flowers under the lens of a microscope, accounting for the minute detail with which he renders the seeds.
Peter Paone is an artist well known to the Brandywine for the exhibition Reality Reassembled: The Halloween Paintings of Peter Paone, which was presented at Brandywine in the fall of 2019. Paone has had a long and successful career working in the figurative tradition, not only in painting and drawing, but also in printmaking, a medium that he has excelled in since he began studying it as a student at John Bartram High School in Philadelphia. Paone established the print department at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, where he taught until 2009. Paone’s prints demonstrate his strengths in multimedia and his lifelong approach to storytelling that resonate with viewers through their mysterious but often poignant or dark portrayal.
Peter Paone is an artist well known to the Brandywine for the exhibition Reality Reassembled: The Halloween Paintings of Peter Paone, which was presented at Brandywine in the fall of 2019. Paone has had a long and successful career working in the figurative tradition, not only in painting and drawing, but also in printmaking, a medium that he has excelled in since he began studying it as a student at John Bartram High School in Philadelphia. Paone established the print department at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, where he taught until 2009. Paone’s prints demonstrate his strengths in multimedia and his lifelong approach to storytelling that resonate with viewers through their mysterious but often poignant or dark portrayal.