The Bloom of the Grape
1893
Oil on canvas
30-1/8″ x 40-1/8″
See it for yourself at Newfields (Indianapolis Museum of Art)
Currently on View in K210
Painted in 1893, “The Bloom of the Grape” is viewed as one of Steele’s best-known landscapes and received an honorable mention at the 1900 World’s Fair in Paris. This oil on canvas brought international attention to Indiana painting. Steele was approximately 46 at the time. The title refers to a white, gauzy veil known as bloom that covers grapes at harvest time. Steele said the hazy, frosty days of late October and early November reminded him of the “bloom of the grape.”