Orange Greenhouse Yale University Art Gallery

ca. 1979

In this drawing of a greenhouse, Anna Held Audette captured the variations of light and shadow on glass panes, window frames, and winding stalks of greenery. The orange color of the paper shines through in patches of negative space, suggesting the warm hues of twilight. The drawing reflects Audette’s interest in the relationship between natural and man-made environments, a theme she pursued in the 1980s with her luminous and rigorously formal paintings of junkyards and discarded machines. Here, a door mysteriously left ajar invites the viewer to enter the greenhouse, yet the space of Audette’s tightly cropped composition seems impenetrable.

Medium: Conté crayon on orange paper
Dimensions: image: 11 1/4 × 11 7/16 in. (28.5 × 29 cm)
sheet: 12 11/16 × 12 11/16 in. (32.2 × 32.3 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of William Bailey, B.F.A. 1955, M.F.A. 1957
Accession Number: 2010.177.15
Geography: United States
Culture: American
Period: 20th century
Classification: Drawings
Disclaimer: Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Bibliography

Lisa Hodermarsky et al., On the Basis of Art: 150 Years of Women at Yale, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2021), 69, 106–7, no. 15, fig. 1

"Acquisitions," Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin: Online Supplement (accessed March 1, 2012), 59

Object copyright

Not Assigned

Additional information

Subject

Women artists

Inscriptions

Recto, LL under image in graphite: Orange Greenhouse; recto, lower center in graphite: for C. C. 1979 (c)

Signed

Recto, LR under image in graphite: Anna Held Audette

Technical metadata and APIs

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