Hollyhocks in the Sunshine
Laura Coombs Hills American
A native of Newburyport, Massachusetts, Hills began her career as an acclaimed painter of miniature portraits on ivory. After 1920, and likely due to failing eyesight, she shifted to floral still lifes, primarily produced with handmade pastel sticks she purchased in France. She was celebrated for the fresh, modernist aesthetic she brought to a subject traditionally associated with women artists. In this work, Hills employed a vertical composition to emphasize the length of the hollyhock stems against verdant foliage and blue sky. A rare example by Hills of flowers painted en plein air (outdoors) rather than an indoor tabletop setting, “Hollyhocks in the Sunshine” demonstrates her mastery of the pastel medium with its accomplished rendering of brilliant sunlight flickering across the pink blooms.
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