Japanese Magnolias
© Estate of Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald
A writer, dancer, and artist, Fitzgerald is remembered as a defining figure of the Roaring Twenties. She and her husband, F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of The Great Gatsby (1925), met in Montgomery, AL, in 1918, marrying in 1920. She took up art in earnest in 1925, quickly becoming a skilled painter in both watercolor and oil. Fitzgerald’s subjects included paper dolls, Cubist cityscapes, and floral paintings such as this close-up view of Japanese magnolia blossoms. Fitzgerald exhibited her work only once during her lifetime and remained largely unknown as an artist until the late 20th century. The scarcity of her work, as well as her status as a neurodivergent, female artist, also contributed to the lack of recognition for her art. Diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1930, Fitzgerald spent the next 18 years of her life in and out of institutions, including Asheville’s Highland Hospital, where she died on March 10, 1948, in a fire. Despite the fact that her family destroyed much of her art following her death, she has received recognition posthumously for her written and visual work.
Exhibition Title: Asheville Art Museum: An Introduction to the Collection
Label Date: 2021
Type: Catalogue Entry
Written by: Graham Boettcher, PhD
- Intersections in American Art , 9/11/2019 - 00/00/00
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