Amazons were powerful female warriors featured in ancient Greek mythology. In the late 1800s, the term was applied to French and English women famed for their fashion sense and courage on horseback. A favored subject for artists, they were depicted wearing black riding clothes and carrying a crop. By 1925, Joseph Stella had updated this subject: the Amazon is now an American woman of the machine age, and her streamlined profile suggests power and efficiency. She looks out across the landscape with a possessive gaze that evokes American imperialism of the 20th century.