"The Derelict" or "The Lost Boat"
Arthur Wesley Dow American
Not on view
This woodblock print distills Dow’s mature vision as printmaker and theorist. The artist knew the marshlands near Ipswich, Massachusetts, intimately and used the receding curves of a waterway to shape this composition. Abstracted forms allow a stranded foreground boat to be linked visually with distant haystacks and hills along the horizon. A comparison of this working proof, printed in a cooler color scheme on semi-translucent paper, with the finished version (2016.427) attests to Dow’s ongoing penchant for experimentation. In the final print, the yellow sky, still water, and the boat’s extended reflection suggest early morning, while vibrant tonal contrasts throughout the image reveal his interest in color as an expressive tool.
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