New Web objects Landscape

Arthur Wesley Dow

Date: c. 1898–1905

Credit Line: Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection

Object number: 1996.4

Text Entries: The moon rises over an austere, stylized landscape, where a ribbon of earth is suspended between sky and water. In the 1890s, Arthur Dow returned to his hometown of Ipswich, Massachusetts. He had been in France studying in Paris at the Académie Julian and making several trips to Brittany, in particular to Pont Aven, where he created his most lyrical works, like Moonrise, inspired by those familiar landscapes. It was during this time abroad that he developed a passion for Japanese art and aesthetics. Through his teaching he played an important role in spreading knowledge of Japanese aesthetics throughout the United States. In addition to teaching young artists like Georgia O'Keefe, Dow published his essay Composition, in which he defined the essence of a work of art as the harmonious combination of three elements: line, color and notan, a Japanese term used to express the relationship between dark and light areas. Moonrise and other small prints by Dow form a group of sober compositions with flat colors based on the simplification and synthesis of forms. Dow used pinewood, which he inked by hand, following the Japanese tradition. However, he departed radically from that tradition by handling each step in the creation of the print himself. He would make several impressions of his works, modifying his choice of colors, eliminating a woodblock or recutting it. Through his abstract landscapes, he achieved the ultimate goal of Japanese art: the poetic evocation of nature.

Arthur Wesley Dow

Date: c. 1903–1905

Credit Line: Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection

Object number: 1996.5

Text Entries: <i>Creation & Craft: Three Centuries of American Prints</i>. (exh. cat., Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc.). New York: Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., 1990. No. 71, p. 72.<br><br> Green, Nancy E. <i>Arthur Wesley Dow and His Influence</i>. (exh. cat., Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art). Ithaca, New York: Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, 1990. Text p. 23.<br><br> Brownlee, Peter John. <i>Manifest Destiny / Manifest Responsibility: Environmentalism and the Art of the American Landscape</i>. (exh. cat., Loyola University Museum of Art, Chicago, Illinois). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for American Art and Loyola University Museum of Art, 2008. Text pp. 29, 35 (checklist); Ill. Pl. 10, p. 49 (color). <i>Pathways to Modernism: American Art, 1865-1945</i>. (exh. cat. Shanghai Museum with Art Institute of Chicago and Terra Foundation for American Art). Shanghai: Shanghai Museum, 2018. Text p. 47; ill. p. 48 (color).<br><br>

Arthur Wesley Dow

Date: c. 1912

Credit Line: Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection

Object number: 1996.6

Text Entries: Moffatt, Frederick C. <i>Arthur Wesley Dow (1857–1922)</i>. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press for the National Collection of Fine Arts, 1977. No. 29.<br><br> Acton, David and Joseph Goddu. <i>Along Ipswich River: The Color Woodcuts of Arthur Wesley Dow</i>. (exh. cat., Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc.). New York: Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., 1990. No. 32 and no. 33.<br><br> Brownlee, Peter John. <i>Manifest Destiny / Manifest Responsibility: Environmentalism and the Art of the American Landscape</i>. (exh. cat., Loyola University Museum of Art, Chicago, Illinois). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for American Art and Loyola University Museum of Art, 2008. Text pp. 29, 35 (checklist); Ill. Pl. 12, p. 49 (color). <i>Pathways to Modernism: American Art, 1865-1945</i>. (exh. cat. Shanghai Museum with Art Institute of Chicago and Terra Foundation for American Art). Shanghai: Shanghai Museum, 2018. Text p. 47; ill. p. 49 (color).<br><br>

Arthur Wesley Dow

Date: 1916

Credit Line: Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection

Object number: 1995.32

Text Entries: Cartwright, Derrick R. <i>The City and the Country: American Perspectives, 1870–1920</i>. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1999. Text p. 12; fig. 2, p. 12 (black & white). [specific reference to Terra print]<br><br> Cartwright, Derrick R. <i>Ville et campagne: les artistes américains, 1870–1920</i>. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1999. Text p. 12; fig. 2, p. 12 (black & white). [specific reference to Terra print]<br><br> Brownlee, Peter John. <i>Manifest Destiny / Manifest Responsibility: Environmentalism and the Art of the American Landscape</i>. (exh. cat., Loyola University Museum of Art, Chicago, Illinois). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for American Art and Loyola University Museum of Art, 2008. Text p. 35 (checklist); Ill. Pl. 13, p. 49 (color).