Arthur Wesley Dow: Moonrise

Published by the Two Red Roses Foundation, July 24, 2019

Arthur Wesley Dow (1857-1922) was a prolific artist – a painter, printer, and photographer – and teacher of the American Arts and Crafts movement. The Two Red Roses Foundation has recently acquired Dow’s rare and beautiful woodblock print, Moonrise, c. 1898-1905. This work illustrates his interest in color experimentation and is a variant impression of his woodblock print Marsh Creek, also part of the TRRF collection.

An Ipswich, Massachusetts native, Dow began his artistic training in 1880 as a figure painter with Anna K. Freeland of Worcester, Massachusetts, and later under James M. Stones of Boston. To further his studies, Dow enrolled in the Académie Julian in Paris from 1884 to 1889 and studied under figure painters Gustave Boulanger (1824-1888) and Jules Joseph Lefebvre (1836-1911). Eventually embracing the work of the French Naturalist Jules Bastien-Lepage (1848-1884), Dow adopted a lyrical Barbizon manner, capturing intimate landscape vignettes during his summers at the artists’ colony in Pont-Aven, Brittany. It was during this time Dow began exploring color and the effects of light on landscapes, concepts he developed further with woodblock printing.

Dow started experimenting with woodblocks in 1891, a few years after he returned to the United States. Frustrated with his landscape paintings, Dow started to question his artistic inspirations and look for new, non-Western sources. While researching at the Boston Public Library, he discovered the flat, linear woodblock prints of Japanese-master Hokusai. Struck by the simplicity, elegance, and decorative beauty of Hokusai’s compositions, Dow’s way of seeing landscapes was transformed.

Dow embraced aesthetic components from Japanese sources, particularly bold lines, two-dimensional color planes, and simplified details. He evolved his interpretation of Japanese aesthetics further, by also adopting the medium of block printing. Dow executed every step of the printing process: choosing the image, carving the blocks, selecting and applying colors, and printing each impression by hand. He frequently experimented with color in his prints, using the same blocks to make multiple impressions in different inks. This enabled him to suggest different seasons or times of day.

Moonrise exemplifies Dow’s interest in capturing light’s effect on landscapes. Pictured is the charming coast of Cape Ann, located north of Boston and not far from Ipswich. In this work, Dow used muted blue for the water and sky and two shades of gray for the shore. A yellow full moon ascends into the sky, casting red shadows on the trees and a reflection in the water below. Moonrise is a variant of Marsh Creek, in which Dow depicts a waxing gibbous moon and uses darker colors for the shore, water, sky, and moon to suggest a different time of day. By repositioning the moon and changing colors, Dow achieved these subtle differences using virtually the same set of blocks. TRRF owns both prints, affording visitors and researchers a unique and rare opportunity to compare the works.

Dow worked in woodblocks until the first decade of the twentieth century, returning mainly to oils by 1907. He enjoyed capturing the flat, coastal grasslands by his home. Arthur Warren Johnson, Dow’s early biographer, commented on the artist’s desire to explore “every nook and corner of Ipswich” catching “every nuance of color, mood, and change.” His influence was prolific, affecting both fine and decorative arts in resounding ways. He worked diligently mentoring young artists, establishing the Ipswich Summer School of Art in 1891 and later teaching in New York. In 1899, Dow published Composition, a revolutionary teaching manual that stressed the initial importance of understanding the elements of design – the harmonious relationships between lines, colors, and light and dark patterns – rather than beginning with technique. Dow taught his theories, inspired by Japanese design, to leading twentieth-century artists, including painter Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986), photographer Alvin Langdon Coburn (1882-1966), and many other artists included in the TRRF collection.