Tree, Cactus, Moon, c.1928
Gouache on paper, 41 x 27"
Gift of Betsy Main Babcock, 1979.2.1

Best-known for his precisionist works, inspired by modernist architecture and industry, Joseph Stella departed from this style in the 1920s.  During this decade, Stella spent much of his time in Italy, where he focused on figural works and landscapes.  Tree, Cactus, Moon of 1928 is an excellent example of Stella's increasingly organic subject matter.  In this stylized landscape painting, a tall tree is silhouetted against a radiant moon, while a desert cactus blooms in the foreground.  While the painting illustrates the artist's departure from his previous industrial motifs, the work does recall aspects of Stella's earlier style.  The tree's sharp point, as well as the composition's strong centrality, allude to Stella's precisionist works, such as The Brooklyn Bridge of 1919.