Moonrise

Moonrise is a variant impression of Arthur Wesley Dow's color woodcut print entitled Marsh Creek (TF 1996.5), an image of the picturesque coastal scenery of Cape Ann, north of Boston, where the artist spent much of his life. In this work he used lighter, softer blues for the water and sky and pale gray-greens and grays for the shore to evoke the setting at an earlier hour of evening. The most noticeable difference between the two prints, however, is the artist's slight alteration of the wood block in order to change the position of the moon, which he also made fuller. Instead of well up in the sky, here the moon peeks over a clump of trees on the horizon, and its reflection glimmers on the water. Besides making each of these impressions of virtually the same set of blocks a unique work, Dow's subtle color variations and slight compositional changes imbue each scene with a unique poetic and lyrical interpretation of nature.

Dow created Moonrise during a period when he was gaining a reputation as an influential art educator, as well as a leading color woodcut printmaker who enthusiastically promoted Japanese aesthetics to artists and collectors in the United States. Dow was one of the first American artists to promote color experimentation in his printmaking.

Arthur Wesley Dow and His Influence, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York (organizer). Venues: Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, August 24–October 14, 1990; Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, November 1–December 31, 1990; Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, January 11–March 10, 1991; University of Kentucky Art Museum, Lexington, Kentucky, April 21–June 2, 1991; Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, California, June 21–September 1, 1991. [exh. cat.]

Ville et campagne: les artistes américains, 1870–1920 (The City and the Country: American Perspectives, 1870–1920), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–July 15, 1999. [exh. cat.]

Collection Cameo, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, June 1997.

Le Japonisme en Amérique: oeuvres sur papier, 1880–1930 (Japonisme in America: Works on Paper, 1880–1930), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, September 15–November 30, 2002.

Manifest Destiny, Manifest Responsibility: Environmentalism and the Art of the American Landscape.  Terra Foundation  for American Art, Chicago, Illinois and Loyola University Museum of Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizers). Venue: Loyola University Museum of Art,  May 17–August 10, 2008. [exh. cat.]

Atelier 17: Modern Printmaking in the Americas (Atelier 17: Gravura moderna nas Américas,  Museu De Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo (MAC-USP) and Terra Foundation for American Art (organizer).  Venue: Museu De Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo (MAC-USP), March 23–June 2, 2019. [exh. cat.]

Terra Collection-in-Residence, Ashmolean Museum of Art & Archaeology, Oxford, United Kingdom, September 15, 2022–September 30, 2026.

 

Acton, David and Joseph Goddu. Along Ipswich River: The Color Woodcuts of Arthur Wesley Dow. (exh. cat., Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc.). New York: Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., 1990. No. 61, pp. 32, 43.

Green, Nancy E. Arthur Wesley Dow and His Influence. (exh. cat., Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art). Ithaca, New York: Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, 1990. Text pp. 11; ill. p. 23.

Moonrise, Arthur Wesley Dow. Collection Cameo sheet, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, June 1997. Ill. (black & white). [specific reference to Terra print]

Brownlee, Peter John. Manifest Destiny / Manifest Responsibility: Environmentalism and the Art of the American Landscape. (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. 11, p. 49 (color).

Balkin, Debra Bricker. Dove/O'Keefe: Circles of Influence. (exh. cat., Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts). New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2009. Text p. 14; ill. fig. 12, p. 15 (color). Rossetti de Toledo, Carolina, Ana Gonçalves Magalhães, and Peter John Brownlee. Atelier 17 e a gravura moderna nas Americas / Atelier 17 and Modern Printmaking in the Americas. (exh. cat., Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo). São Paulo, Brazil: 2019. Text pp. 218-219; ill. p. 217 (color).