Floral Study

Flowers were considered an appropriately genteel subject for women artists and were easy to obtain for copying, whether from life or books. Amateur women painters, like Kellinger, often practiced their craft as an economical and self-fulfilling way to decorate their homes. These flowers resemble gentians or bellflowers, but vary in too many details to make a definite identification.

Kellinger may have intended her floral watercolors for the walls of the Yonkers boarding house that her family operated or perhaps gave them to the donor for the same purpose. Both were lifelong Yonkers residents and probably friends.