Le Tournesol (The Sunflower) by Edward Steichen

Le Tournesol (The Sunflower) by Edward Steichen

Edward Steichen, Le Tournesol (The Sunflower) (detail), c. 1920, tempera and oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of the Collectors Committee 1999.43.1

Steichen surrounded the curved sunflower and vase with an explosion of multicolored triangles and cropped rectangles. He had come to believe through his mathematical studies that a rectangle, when dissected into three triangles, each in extreme and mean ratio, represented nature's golden mean. He even conceived a children's book based on this principle, making small tempera paintings of triangle-shaped characters, which he called the "Oochens." (While Steichen did not complete the book, the background of Le Tournesol bears a strong resemblance to his Oochen characters.)

Move your mouse over the image to see the background shapes.