Artwork
Magnolia

Magnolia is an oil painting by the Impressionist artist James Jebusa Shannon. It dates from 1900 and is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The 1899 oil painting Magnolia by James Jebusa Shannon portrays his daughter Kitty Shannon in a portrait that combines contemporary fashion with floral detail.
The 1899 oil painting Magnolia by James Jebusa Shannon portrays his daughter Kitty Shannon in a portrait that combines contemporary fashion with floral detail. She is shown wearing a robe, a headband, a necklace, and a fleur‑de‑lis, while a magnolia blossom appears as a prominent element of her attire. The composition emphasizes the sitter’s identity through these accessories, linking the floral motif to the title of the work. The painting is housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it remains on display.
Technique & Style
James Jebusa Shannon's Magnolia, executed in 1899, is an oil painting on canvas. The work measures 181.9 cm in height and 99.7 cm in width, presenting a formal composition that depicts a woman identified as Kitty Shannon. The figure is adorned with a necklace, a headband, and a robe featuring a fleur-de-lis motif, while holding a magnolia flower.
The painting is currently held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. As an oil on canvas work from the turn of the twentieth century, the piece exemplifies Shannon's handling of the medium to render portraiture with specific attention to costume details and floral elements.
History & Provenance
Magnolia, an oil on canvas painted in 1899 by James Jebusa Shannon, portrays his wife Kitty Shannon and is catalogued as a painting in the artist’s oeuvre. The work entered the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it remains on view, and its creation date is recorded as 1899‑01‑01 in the museum’s provenance data. The painting measures 181.9 cm × 99.7 cm and is executed in oil paint on canvas.
No documentation of a specific commission has been identified; the circumstances of its acquisition by the museum are not detailed in the sources.
Magnolia, painted by James Jebusa Shannon in 1899, is housed in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The work is listed as part of the museum's holdings, though no specific accession or inventory number is recorded in the available documentation. Exhibition records cited in the sources do not indicate any prior display of the painting, suggesting that it has remained in the museum's storage or study collection without a documented public exhibition history.
Overview
Magnolia is an oil painting that features a young girl as its central subject. She is depicted against a dark, brick-like wall, holding a small bouquet of white flowers. These blossoms, which are magnolias, lend the artwork its title.
The artist employed oil paint to create a soft, somewhat diffused visual quality, particularly noticeable in the rendering of her attire and the overall atmosphere of the scene.
Artist & collection
Artist
Sir James Jebusa Shannon (3 February 1862 – 6 March 1923) was an Anglo-American artist. In 1886 he married Florence Mary Cartwright (d. 1948), with whom he had an only child, the illustrator Kitty Shannon (1887–1974).












