Europe wonders if France was right about America
Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2025 4:04 am
Mitchell revisited two major topics often throughout his career: poetry and nature, both of which could be considered to be related in his work. The first was with Mitchell from a young age. His mother, Marion Strobel, was herself a poet and editor of Poetry magazine. When Mitchell was 10, one of his poems was printed in this journal, with lines like “Rusty leaves crackle and crackle, / , / The fields are matted with tan stems – / The wind is rushing.
A white woman sitting on the floor with her legs crossed next to several abstract paintings, some of which are also on the floor.
Joan Mitchell, 1956.
Photo Loomis Dean / The LIFE Picture Collection / Shutterstock
Nature also featured in his work, whether in the form of still lifes or job function email database abstract landscapes. “Man made a city; nature grows, ”she once wrote in a letter to Sandler. “I see it all like nature. I look at everything like what I see. Whether she was painting bridges spotted from her New York apartment window or the vibrant landscapes she saw in northern France, Mitchell has always cast an admiring eye on her surroundings.
Many have compared Mitchell’s work to Impressionism – a fitting comparison given that she spent a lot of time on the historical grounds of the biggest names in this earlier movement. In 1959, Mitchell moved to the French commune of Vétheuil, where Claude Monet had previously worked. Mitchell’s paintings on several large-scale canvases often communicated the impact of time on nature, as did Monet’s cathedrals and gardens.
Vincent van Gogh’s work also dominated his work. Particularly in the later stages of her career, Mitchell used striking shades of yellow and blue that she foamed in thick, allowing her paint to stay thick. Then there are the sunflowers that recur throughout Mitchell’s work, albeit in an abstract fashion. In the three-part painting Untitled (1969), for example, a giant yellow flower grows from an off-white mass in the center, its petals rendered as balls of yellow, purple and blue. (Mitchell, who was far-sighted, often had to step back to see his paintings in great detail, and seeing them from a distance can often bring out unheard-of flourishes.)
A white woman sitting on the floor with her legs crossed next to several abstract paintings, some of which are also on the floor.
Joan Mitchell, 1956.
Photo Loomis Dean / The LIFE Picture Collection / Shutterstock
Nature also featured in his work, whether in the form of still lifes or job function email database abstract landscapes. “Man made a city; nature grows, ”she once wrote in a letter to Sandler. “I see it all like nature. I look at everything like what I see. Whether she was painting bridges spotted from her New York apartment window or the vibrant landscapes she saw in northern France, Mitchell has always cast an admiring eye on her surroundings.
Many have compared Mitchell’s work to Impressionism – a fitting comparison given that she spent a lot of time on the historical grounds of the biggest names in this earlier movement. In 1959, Mitchell moved to the French commune of Vétheuil, where Claude Monet had previously worked. Mitchell’s paintings on several large-scale canvases often communicated the impact of time on nature, as did Monet’s cathedrals and gardens.
Vincent van Gogh’s work also dominated his work. Particularly in the later stages of her career, Mitchell used striking shades of yellow and blue that she foamed in thick, allowing her paint to stay thick. Then there are the sunflowers that recur throughout Mitchell’s work, albeit in an abstract fashion. In the three-part painting Untitled (1969), for example, a giant yellow flower grows from an off-white mass in the center, its petals rendered as balls of yellow, purple and blue. (Mitchell, who was far-sighted, often had to step back to see his paintings in great detail, and seeing them from a distance can often bring out unheard-of flourishes.)