The Dawning
Arthur B. Davies
American Art
In the years immediately following the Armory Show of 1913, Davies departed from his traditional figurative works to experiment with his own brand of Cubist-influenced forms and compositions. Beginning in 1914, he began to adapt his new aesthetic to large-scale canvases like this one, in which the essentially decorative character of his version of modernism is apparent. A writer in 1917 commented that in this work the artist "has allied his new knowledge of the geometrical side of art with the old knowledge stored in his vivid, dreamy, inquiring mind. This disturbing and compelling 'Dawning' fresco, which attracts more and more each time it is seen, should be in a public museum." Lillie P. Bliss, who had acquired the work by that year, must have agreed, for she left it to the Brooklyn Museum.
MEDIUM
Oil on canvas
DATES
1915
DIMENSIONS
108 3/8 x 108 1/4 in. (275.3 x 275 cm)
(show scale)
SIGNATURE
Signed, "A.B. Davies" lower left
ACCESSION NUMBER
31.275
CREDIT LINE
Bequest of Lillie P. Bliss
MUSEUM LOCATION
This item is not on view
CAPTION
Arthur B. Davies (American, 1862â1928). The Dawning, 1915. Oil on canvas, 108 3/8 x 108 1/4 in. (275.3 x 275 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Bequest of Lillie P. Bliss, 31.275 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 31.275_transp1069.jpg)
IMAGE
overall, 31.275_transp1069.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
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