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"La Vie en Rose"

Joan Mitchell American
1979
Not on view
Mitchell ranks among the most eloquent interpreters of allover gestural painting associated with Abstract Expressionism in the 1950s. After her permanent move to France from New York in 1959, she continued to expand her abstract vocabulary by responding to her natural surroundings, in a way that recalls Claude Monet’s Impressionist views of his gardens at Giverny. The four joined canvases of "La Vie en Rose" (titled after Edith Piaf’s famed romantic song of the 1940s) present an immersive, lilac-tinted panorama activated by staccato but lyrical brushwork in black, lavender, pink, and gray hues. The panels function as distinct episodes or stanzas that convey sensory responses and feelings that unfold over time, while the picture plane alternatively asserts itself and fades away into hazy atmosphere.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: "La Vie en Rose"
  • Artist: Joan Mitchell (American, Chicago, Illinois 1925–1992 Paris)
  • Date: 1979
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: Overall: 9 ft. 2 1/2 in. × 22 ft. 3 15/16 in. × 4 in. (280.7 × 680.6 × 10.2 cm)
    a - far left panel: 9 ft. 2 1/2 in. × 70 7/8 in. × 1 1/8 in. (280.7 × 180 × 2.9 cm)
    b - center left panel: 9 ft. 2 1/4 in. × 63 1/8 in. × 1 1/4 in. (280 × 160.3 × 3.2 cm)
    c - center right panel: 9 ft. 2 3/8 in. × 63 1/8 in. × 1 1/4 in. (280.4 × 160.3 × 3.2 cm)
    d - far right panel: 9 ft. 2 1/2 in. × 70 7/8 in. × 1 1/4 in. (280.7 × 180 × 3.2 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Anonymous Gift and Purchase, George A. Hearn Fund, by exchange, 1991
  • Object Number: 1991.139a-d
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

More Artwork

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Brush, Joan Mitchell American, Color lithograph
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Sides of a River III from the Bedford Series
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Sunflower, Joan Mitchell American, Oil on canvas
Sunflower
Joan Mitchell
1969
Smoke
Joan Mitchell
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Little Weeds I
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