This is a very famous photo by Edward Weston of a nautilus shell that is considered one of the jumping off points for the Modernist movement in art back in the first quarter of the 20th century and one of the great photos of all time, selling a few years back at auction for over a million dollars. It’s a beautiful and simple image that transcends itself. I came across it recently along with a mention as to how it came about when Weston, on a trip to California, encountered a painter whose work, particularly in some close up pieces of shell, greatly stimulated him. Her name was Henrietta Shore.
It was not a name I had encountered and doing a quick Google search came across a number of striking images that reminded me of Georgia O’Keeffe. 
It turns out that she was a contemporary of O’Keeffe and it was said that Shore’s work had eclipsed O’Keeffe’s when they were exhibited together, something which happened a few times. Shore also had an incredible painting pedigree, training with the likes of William Merritt Chase, Robert Henri and even John Singer Sargeant. She had lived in London and New York before moving to California, settling in Carmel around 1930. Once there, she didn’t show her work much outside of the Carmel/Monterey region and never really gained the notoriety that came to O’Keeffe. It was another one of those cases where I have come across amazing talents who have fallen off the wider map for some reason that remains a mystery to me.
There is great sensuality in her work, for instance the human-like twist and feel of her Cypress trees, that I found really appealing, something I try to work into my own paintings. Looking at Weston’s body of work, I can see the similarity in how he portrayed many of his subjects, finding wonderful beauty in simple twists and curves.
I also liked that she stopped dating her paintings because she didn’t want them categorized into time frames in her career because she viewed her work and her life as being part of a continuum that transcended time. Again, something I hope for in my own work. How had Henrietta Shore escaped my notice for all these many years?
There’s not a lot of data out there about Shore, at least with a quick search. She didn’t have a long list of exhibitions after the 30’s and those that she did have were in the Monterey area, so became a sort of regional painter which doesn’t take anything away from her great talent. It only deprives the rest of us from finding her and finding something for ourselves in her work. Thankfully, modern technology and the web allows us to stumble across such a wonderful painter long after she has faded from the national stage, even though her work will always live on in the continuum. Just plain good stuff…
Redtree Times 