This landscape, lacking perspective and a horizon line, is so tightly cropped and simplified that it is nearly unrecognizable. Working on wood rather than paper or canvas, Dove rubbed his pastels deeply into the surface. The natural grain of the panel is thus still apparent and provides the outlines of the abstracted tree trunk and ripples of water—a serendipitous congruence of medium and subject.
This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
Open Access
As part of the Met's Open Access policy, you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes.
API
Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API.
This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
Artwork Details
Use your arrow keys to navigate the tabs below, and your tab key to choose an item
Title:Tree Forms and Water
Artist:Arthur Dove (American, Canandaigua, New York 1880–1946 Huntington, New York)
Date:ca. 1928
Medium:Pastel on plywood
Dimensions:30 in. × 26 1/8 in. (76.2 × 66.4 cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:Alfred Stieglitz Collection, 1949
Object Number:49.92.3
the artist; Alfred Stieglitz, New York (probably 1928–d. 1946) and/or Georgia O'Keeffe, New York (probably 1928–June 1949; in exchange for return of "evolutionary" material by other artists, her gift as part of the Alfred Stieglitz Collection to MMA)
Philadelphia Museum of Art. "History of an American, Alfred Stieglitz: '291' and After, Selections from the Stieglitz Collection," July 1–November 1, 1944, no. 256.
Art Institute of Chicago. "Alfred Stieglitz: His Photographs and His Collection," February 2–29, 1948, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "20th Century Painters: A Special Exhibition of Oils, Water Colors and Drawings Selected from the Collections of American Art in the Metropolitan Museum," June 16–October 29, 1950, unnum. brochure (p. 5).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "American Pastels in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1880–1930," October 17, 1989–January 14, 1990, extended to February 18, 1990, unnumbered cat. (p. 117).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Arthur Dove: Nature Abstracted," April 16, 1991–April 6, 1992, no catalogue (dated 1928).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Arthur Dove/Helen Torr: Land and Water," February 14–June 14, 1998, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Stieglitz and His Artists: Matisse to O'Keeffe," October 13, 2011–January 2, 2012, no. 69.
Ann Lee Morgan. Arthur Dove: Life and Work, with a Catalogue Raisonné. Newark, Del., 1984, pp. 165–66, no. 28.14.
Mary Wayne Fritzsche inAmerican Pastels in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1989, p. 116, ill. pp. 117 (color), 190.
Marjorie Shelley inAmerican Pastels in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1989, p. 42.
Mary Wayne Fritzsche and Gail Stavitsky inAmerican Pastels in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1989, p. 25.
Jessica Murphy inStieglitz and His Artists: Matisse to O'Keeffe. The Alfred Stieglitz Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Lisa Mintz Messinger. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2011, pp. 113, 259, no. 69, ill. (color).
Arthur Dove (American, Canandaigua, New York 1880–1946 Huntington, New York)
ca. 1942
Resources for Research
The Met's Libraries and Research Centers provide unparalleled resources for research and welcome an international community of students and scholars.
The Met Collection API is where all makers, creators, researchers, and dreamers can connect to the most up-to-date data and public domain images for The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.
The Met's engagement with art from 1890 to today includes the acquisition and exhibition of works in a range of media, spanning movements in modernism to contemporary practices from across the globe.
