A Party for Florine: Florine Stettheimer and Me
by Yevgenia Nayberg; illus. by the author
Primary, Intermediate    Porter/Holiday    40 pp.
7/24    9780823454105    $18.99

When this book’s fictional young narrator experiences a moment of recognition between herself and the self-portrait of American modernist painter Florine Stettheimer (1871–1944), she is compelled to learn more about the painter’s life and art. Born to a Jewish family, Stettheimer grows up in Rochester, New York; spends time in Europe; and eventually settles in New York City with her mother and sisters. She dedicates her time to painting, set design, and throwing parties attended by such notables of the art and literary world as Marcel Duchamp and Carl Van Vechten. The book hints at Stettheimer’s feminism and nonconformity: she lounges around in white silk pants (no dresses or skirts here!), commits herself to her art, and creates paintings that “look like jazz”; their bold uses of colors, levitating bodies, and swaying buildings “danced and sang on a canvas.” Stettheimer’s art inspires the narrator to throw a party in the artist’s honor and to see her own world with the eyes of an artist. Mixed-media and digital print illustrations copy Stettheimer’s sense of style and whimsical aesthetic, while reproductions of the artist’s four Cathedrals paintings can be found on the front and back endpapers. An author’s note provides more details about Stettheimer’s life and places her work within a larger conversation about art history.

From the July/August 2024 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.