Untitled (Preliminary Study for "Le Tournesol") c. 1920

This is "Untitled (Preliminary Study for 'Le Tournesol')" by Edward Steichen, made with graphite on paper. Steichen's work developed during the Photo-Secession movement, an early 20th-century American movement that promoted photography as a fine art. In this sketch for a later work, the sunflower’s bloom appears as an ovoid mass from which thin, curving lines descend, delineating its stalk. The flower is cropped closely and the overall form, combined with the intimate medium of paper, has a human quality. What do you feel when looking at it? Are you confronted by its organic mass? During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, artists turned to nature as a powerful source of inspiration and innovation. Consider the many ways identity is constructed, both visually and conceptually, and how these depictions challenge or reinforce the complex relationship between humanity and nature.