Frosty Moon
Artist
Arthur Dove
(American, 1880 - 1946)
Date1940
MediumGouache on heavy textured watercolor paper
DimensionsFramed: 17 3/4 × 23 3/4 × 1in. (45.1 × 60.3 × 2.5cm)
Overall: 5 x 7in. (12.7 x 17.8cm)
Overall: 5 x 7in. (12.7 x 17.8cm)
ClassificationsDRAWINGS
Credit LineEdward W. Root Bequest
Terms
Object number57.133
Description On View
Not on viewCollections
CopyrightEstate of Arthur G. Dove.
Label TextArtists Helen “Reds” Torr (1886-1967) and Arthur Dove met in 1919 and married in 1932. They were among a handful of painters associated with galleries run by photographer Alfred Stieglitz, a colorful man who promoted modern art in the United States in the early 20th century. Other artists associated with Stieglitz include Marsden Hartley, John Marin, and Georgia O’Keeffe, all of whom depicted landscape or elements of nature in a stylized abstraction. Dove similarly evoked the essence of light and forms around him, as demonstrated in this oil sketch, Frosty Moon. Like her husband, Helen Torr painted landscapes and floral motifs that she refined into modernist patterns.
Duncan Philips [founder of the Philips Collection, Washington, D.C.] was an avid collector of Arthur Dove’s work and sent a regular stipend in exchange for the artist’s paintings. The money was not generous, however, and the Doves lived simply. In the 1920s, their home was a houseboat in the Harlem River; in the 1930s they moved to Centerport, Long Island, although Arthur also spent a great deal of time on family business in Geneva, N.Y., during this period. The Archives of American Art has the couple’s letters to one another, written when they were separated by business or family visits. The affectionate notes are full of rich detail on their daily lives.
MEM ("Certified" exhibition 2011)
