Jezabel

Object NamePrint

Artist / MakerArtist is Elizabeth "Beth" Marie Van Hoesen (American, 1926 - 2010)

Date20th Century

Dimensions13 5/8 x 22 5/8 in. (34.6 x 57.5 cm)

ClassificationsPrints and Printing Plates

Credit LineGift of the estate of Beth Van Hoesen and Mark Adams. In the permanent collection, Brunnier Art Museum, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.

Object numberUM2011.52

Status

Not on view

Collections

CultureAmerican

Label TextFrom the University Museums Collections Handbook, vol. 2, 2025: Beth Van Hoesen grew up in Boise, Idaho, leaving to attend Stanford University and settling in San Francisco after meeting her husband and fellow artist Mark Adams at the California School of Fine Arts. San Francisco was a vibrant artist community where Van Hoesen intermingled with other up and coming artists who came to the eclectic 1910 firehouse she and Adams shared. Van Hoesen became well known for her detailed and thoughtfully rendered drawings and prints, especially those she made of animals. Jezebel is just one of many animals by Van Hoesen that were gifted to University Museums, along with her images of flowers and interesting humans. The collection includes many stages of the print, allowing for a direct understanding of the unique artistic process Van Hoesen engaged in during her work with a master printer. The fox, Jezebel, peers at the viewer with a sly, knowing, or mysterious look, it is up to the viewer to decide the intent of her gaze. The title name is based on the Biblical story of a woman rife with wickedness, playing with a similar cliché attached to the fox species – “sly as a fox.”

Locations