Arthur G. Dove
The Bessie of New York
1931
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Arthur G. Dove
The Bessie of New York
1931
Physical Qualities
Oil on canvas, 28 x 40 in. (71.1 x 101.6 cm)
Credit Line
Edward Joseph Gallagher III Memorial Collection
Object Number
1953.5
Arthur Dove is best known for painting abstractions of natural forms such as mountains, clouds, sun, and sea. Here, however, his subject is “Bessie,” a New York City tugboat, which seems to be humanized in almost Disneyesque fashion. Before making this work, Dove lived first on a houseboat in the Harlem River with artist Helen Torr, then on the Mona, a 42-foot yawl, moored at various locales in the area. By the time Dove painted The Bessie, he was thoroughly familiar with waterborne traffic in and around New York City. The painting was initially acquired by Duncan Phillips, Dove’s major patron. When Phillips suggested that the artist cut the canvas in half to make a “better painting” out of the right-hand portion, Dove fortunately refused.
Link Benesch Reinstall (Spring 2008)
AMW Reinstallation 2014
Adelyn Breeskin: Curating a Legacy
Frederick S. Wight, "Arthur G. Dove", Berkeley: University of California Press, 1958, no. 39, pp. 53 (color) and 94.
Baltimore Museum of Art. The Edward Joseph Gallagher III Memorial Collection. [Baltimore, MD]: Baltimore Museum of Art, [1964], page 24.
Dorothy Rylander Johnson, "Arthur Dove: The years of collage", College Park, MD: J.M. Tawes Fine Art Center, 1967, no. 8, p. 49
Sasha M. Newman, "Arthur Dove and Duncan Phillips: Artist and Patron", Washington, D.C.: Phillips College, 1981, no. 25, p. 146, ill. p. 83
Ann Lee Morgan, "Arthur Dove / Life and Work, with a Catalogue Raisonne", Newarl: University of Delaware Press, 1984, no. 32.3, p. 198, ill. 200.
Messinger, Lisa, "Stieglitz and His Artists: Matisse to O'Keeffe," The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2011, p. 118
