Pansies in Washington

1969

Alma Thomas

Artist, American, 1891 - 1978

This nearly square, abstract painting is filled with circles within circles, like nested rings, each of a single bright color against the ivory white of the canvas. Each ring is made up of a series of short, rectangular dashes, and some bands are narrower while others are a bit wider. The majority of the rings are crimson and brick red, and they are interspersed with bands of lapis blue, army green, and pale pink. One of two pumpkin-orange bands is the smallest, innermost ring at the center. There is one aqua-blue colored ring just inside a pale, shell-white ring, which is the first to get cropped by the edges of the canvas. A few red, green, and blue rings beyond the white band are only seen at the corners of the canvas.

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On View

NGA, East Building, EU-407-C, N


Artwork overview

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Verdant green fields roll in undulating waves back alongside a road in this horizontal landscape painting. The fields take up the left and center of the composition and are painted with thick, curling strokes of emerald, pea, and celery green, and corn yellow to suggest grasses and plants. The pale green road runs up along the right edge of the painting, and is layered with strokes and daubs in butter yellow, spring green, and faint blue. The fields and road meet the horizon line about halfway up the canvas, where an aquamarine-blue sky swirling with white and periwinkle-blue clouds fills the top half of the painting.

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Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Vincent Melzac [1914-1989], Arlington, Virginia; gift 1972 to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; acquired 2015 by the National Gallery of Art.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1972

  • Alma W. Thomas: Retrospective Exhibition, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 8 September - 15 October 1972, no. 15.

  • Washington Room, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, April - June 1972.

1979

  • Women Artists from Washington Collections, University of Maryland, 1979.

2010

  • Abstraction from the Collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 2010.

2011

  • Washington Color and Light, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 2010-2011, no catalogue.

2021

  • Alma W. Thomas: Everything Is Beautiful, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk; The Phillips Collection, Washington, 2021 - 2022, no. 160, repro.

Wikidata ID

Q46638691


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