Le Tournesol (The Sunflower) by Edward Steichen

Machine tournez vite (Machine Turn Quickly) by Francis Picabia

Francis Picabia, Machine tournez vite (Machine Turn Quickly), 1916/1918, gouache and metallic paint on paper, laid down on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Patrons' Permanent Fund 1989.10.1

Le Tournesol also shows elements of a new postwar art movement called precisionism. The precisionist painters, Charles Demuth and Charles Sheeler among them, portrayed both modern technology and more nostalgic subjects (like bridges and barns) in geometric, highly structured compositions. They avoided painterly surfaces and atmospheric effects. Steichen rid Le Tournesol of all hints of the atmospherics and painterliness of his early landscapes, instead making the flower and vase into efficient, machinelike designs. The tight structure and focus of Le Tournesol paralleled Steichen's move toward precision in photography.