Joseph Stella (1877-1946)

Writing about another swan composition by Joseph Stella, Joann Moser explains, "A form that recurs in several of Stella's drawings and paintings is that of a swan, an image favored by the Symbolists not only for its elongated, curvilinear silhouette, but also for the play on words inherent in the French word for swan, cygne, and its homonym signe, or sign, a sonorous word simultaneously evoking sense and image. Recalling [Stéphane] Mallarmé's famous sonnet of the swan, Stella's hallucinatory image in cool colors is a visual equivalent of Symbolist poetry by an artist who sought to unite visual art, music, and poetry in a single expression." (Visual Poetry: The Drawings of Joseph Stella, Washington, D.C., 1990, p. 107)