Datura

Inscriptions

Signed, in graphite, lower left: Edna Boies Hopkins

Label

This subtle, translucent floral print inspired by Japanese aesthetics is typical of Edna Boies Hopkins’s early color woodblock prints in its closely observed, asymmetrical presentation of a partially cropped blossom. Her title, Datura, references a plant in the nightshade family that is widely cultivated for its blooms yet is toxic and sometimes used as a hallucinogen in religious ceremonies associated with indigenous cultures of northern Mexico and the American Southwest. Although no evidence suggests an awareness of this association on Hopkins’s part, her subtle, stylized presentation nonetheless emits an aura of mystery.

From the 2022 exhibition This Land: American Engagement with the Natural World, curated by Jami C. Powell, Curator of Indigenous Art; Barbara J. MacAdam, former Jonathan L. Cohen Curator of American Art; Thomas H. Price, former Curatorial Assistant; Morgan E. Freeman, former DAMLI Native American Art Fellow; and Michael Hartman, Jonathan Little Cohen Associate Curator of American Art

Course History

ANTH 7.05, Animals and Humans, Laura Ogden, Winter 2022

GEOG 31.01, Postcolonial Geographies, Erin Collins, Winter 2022

ANTH 50.05, Environmental Archaeology, Madeleine McLeester, Winter 2022

ANTH 50.05, Environmental Archaeology, Madeleine McLeester, Winter 2022

ARTH 5.01, Introduction to Contemporary Art, Mary Coffey and Chad Elias, Winter 2022

SART 31/SART 72, Painting II/III, Jen Caine, Winter 2022

ANTH 3.01, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Chelsey Kivland, Summer 2022

ANTH 3.01, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Chelsey Kivland, Summer 2022

SPAN 65.15, Wonderstruck: Archives and the Production of Knowledge in an Unequal World, Silvia Spitta and Barbara Goebel, Summer 2022

Exhibition History

American Works on Paper to 1950: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art, Friends and Owen Robertson Cheatham Galleries, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, September 22-December 9, 2007.

The Imprint of Japan: American Color Woodblock Prints, 1890-1910, Israel Sack Gallery [American Works on Paper Wall], Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hamsphire, March 26-July 16, 2013.

This Land: American Engagement with the Natural World, Israel Sack Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, April 12 - July 22, 2022.

Publication History

Barbara J. MacAdam, American Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Muesum of Art, Hanover: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 2007, p. 159, no. 129.

Provenance

From a group of objects obtained from the artist's estate in Paris in 1984. Sold by Mary Ryan Gallery; Sold by Mary Ryan Gallery for the purchaser; sold to present collection, 1997.

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Subjects