Marsh Creek

Inspired by the picturesque coastal scenery of Cape Ann, north of Boston, where he spent much of his life, Arthur Wesley Dow created many lyrical landscapes in color woodcut, among them Marsh Creek. In this print, large areas of unmodulated color represent a wide waterway and a sliver of land along a high horizon beneath a sky accented by an orange moon. Adapting the decorative aesthetic of Japanese art rather than the naturalistic approach of Western tradition, Dow simplified this panoramic scene by alternating broad areas of dense blue hues for the night sky and marsh water with the lighter bands of color representing the land. This print demonstrates the artist's interest in creating compositions that balance form and color and eschew the use of discrete line to delineate elements of the landscape. Dow's style was influenced by traditional Japanese woodcuts, which he studied closely at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and by design concepts derived from the contemporary Arts and Crafts movement, which promoted simplicity, purity, and the inspiration of nature.

Dow executed every phase of the color woodcut process himself: he designed the image, cut the block or blocks, selected and applied the colors, and finally printed each impression by hand rather than using a mechanical press. Experimenting with various color schemes, he found that by applying different color combinations to a single woodcut composition he could create different effects of season and time of day. A splendid example of this process is the variant of Marsh Creek entitled Moonrise (TF 1996.4), for which the artist repositioned the moon and used lighter colors for the shore, water, sky, and moon to suggest an earlier hour.

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.]

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.]

Pathways to Modernism: American Art, 1865–1945 Art Institute of Chicago and Terra Foundation for American Art (organizers). Venue: Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, China, September 28, 2018–January 6, 2019. [exh. cat.]

Creation & Craft: Three Centuries of American Prints. (exh. cat., Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc.). New York: Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., 1990. No. 71, p. 72.

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 p. 23.

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 pp. 29, 35 (checklist); Ill. Pl. 10, p. 49 (color). Pathways to Modernism: American Art, 1865-1945. (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).