The Brothers

Maker and role
Artist: Arthur Dove, American, 1880-1946
Year
1942
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Object detail

Media/Materials
Tempera and wax emulsion on canvas
Measurements
20 x 28in (50.8 x 71.1cm)
Credit line
Gift of Robert L. B. Tobin through the Friends of the McNay
Accession number
1962.3
Object type
Department
Location
Further information
Towards the end of his life, Dove and his wife, Helen "Reds" Torr, lived on the North Shore of Long Island, New York, in a cottage that looked across Mill Pond at the twin-peaks of buildings occupied by the Franciscan brothers. From 1939 to 1942, Dove did ten watercolor sketches of these buildings, which evolved to two free-floating diamonds with minimal reference to the architecture. The diamonds document Dove's move toward "pure painting," equating "purity" with release from representation. On August 20, 1942, two days before he did his last watercolor, he wrote: "Work at point where abstraction and reality meet."
Documentation
Dove: Retrospective Exhibition from January 7 to 25, 1947: Painting, 1908-1946; 1947
Arthur Garfield Dove, 1880-1946: A Retrospective Exhibition, Andrew Dickson White Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York; Arthur Dove (American, b.1880, d.1946); 1954
Arthur G. Dove; Frederick Wight (b.1902, d.1986); 1958; no. 93
Los Angeles Times; May 17, 1959; part V, p. 6
Arthur G. Dove: Mainly the Forties; 1975
San Antonio Express News; May 7, 1976; p. 4-E
Arthur Dove: Life and Work, with a Catalogue Raisonné; Ann Lee Morgan; 1984; 42.3
Arthur Dove and Helen Torr: The Huntington Years; Anne DePietro; 1989; p. 49; no. 53
Arthur Dove: A Retrospective; Debra Bricker Balken; 1997
Modern Art at the McNay: A Brief History and Pictorial Survey of the Collection; William J. Chiego; 2001; p. 173
Images of America: Centerport; David Clemens, Suzanne Johnson; 2019; p. 123
Signature & date
Signed l.c.: Dove
dated l.c: '42
Subject period
Docent information sheet
http://collection.mcnayart.org/docs/dove.pdf
V:\Object Documentation\Paintings\1962.3 Dove\Centerport 2019.pdf

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