Ipswich Town, or Harbor Scene

ca. 1893–95

Not on view

Part of a series titled "Along Ipswich River," this upright composition echoes Japanese pillar prints and reflects the artist's study of Hokusai and Hiroshige. Dow was one of the first Americans to master Japanese woodblock printing techniques, wedding an admiration for Oriental aesthetics with an English Arts and Crafts sensibility. He called his woodcuts "color themes," and they demonstrate his devotion to Eastern concepts of line, color, and notan–the balance of light and dark. He executed the entire printmaking process by hand, carving and inking the blocks and then printing them sequentially on damp mulberry paper. In this case he did not use a linear key block to pull elements together but evokes landscape forms by juxtaposing color shapes.

Artwork Details

Title: Ipswich Town, or Harbor Scene
Artist: Arthur Wesley Dow (American, Ipswich, Massachusetts 1857–1922 New York State)
Date: ca. 1893–95
Medium: Color woodcut on paper stained green
Dimensions: image: 5 x 2 1/4 in. (12.7 x 5.7 cm)
Classification: Prints
Credit Line: Gift of Mrs. W. L. Putnam, 1942
Object Number: 42.54.1
Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

By Arthur Wesley Dow

In the same medium

From the same time and place

Modern Art, Arthur Wesley Dow American, Lithograph — Modern Art
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1895

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18th century

Olympia, Edouard Manet French, color woodcut, printed in black and ochre ink on thin parchment paper — Olympia
After Edouard Manet
1923

The Long Road – Argilla Road, Ipswich, Arthur Wesley Dow American, Color woodcut — The Long Road – Argilla Road, Ipswich
Arthur Wesley Dow
ca. 1898–1912

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Frank Henderson
ca. 1882

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