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.
The Downtown Gallery, New York City, "Arthur G. Dove - Paintings", 1952
Frederick W. Wight, Art Galleries, University of California Los Angeles, "Arthur G. Dove", circulated to Whitney Museum of American Art, Phillips COllection, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, M.K. McNay Art Institute, San Antonio, Art Galleries UCLA, Art Center La Jolla, San Francisco Museum of Art, 1958-1959
D.R. Johnson, J. M. Tawes Fine Art Center, College Park, MD, "Arthur Dove: The years of collage", March 13 - April 19, 1967, no. 8.
Baltimore Museum of Art, "Edward Joseph Gallagher III Memorial Collection", May 11 - June 22, 1969
Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, "Gallagher Collection", Hagerstown, January 3 - 21, 1970.
Terry Dintenfass Gallery, NYC, "Essences Arthur G. Dove", January 28 - February 22, 1975
Bicentennial Arts Committee, Westport CT, "Westport Artists of the Past", June 11-30, 1976
The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., "Arthur G. Dove and Duncan Phillips", June 16 - August 1981, circulated to the High Museum, Atlanta, Nelson-Atkins Gallery, Kansas City, Neuberger Museum, SUNY Purchase, Museum of Fine Art, Houston, Seattle Museum, New Milwaukee Art Center, through November 1982.
The Baltimore Museum of Art, "American Modernism from the Collection," June 25, 2003-
Frederick W. Wight, Art Galleries, University of California Los Angeles, "Arthur G. Dove", circulated to Whitney Museum of American Art, Phillips COllection, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, M.K. McNay Art Institute, San Antonio, Art Galleries UCLA, Art Center La Jolla, San Francisco Museum of Art, 1958-1959
D.R. Johnson, J. M. Tawes Fine Art Center, College Park, MD, "Arthur Dove: The years of collage", March 13 - April 19, 1967, no. 8.
Baltimore Museum of Art, "Edward Joseph Gallagher III Memorial Collection", May 11 - June 22, 1969
Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, "Gallagher Collection", Hagerstown, January 3 - 21, 1970.
Terry Dintenfass Gallery, NYC, "Essences Arthur G. Dove", January 28 - February 22, 1975
Bicentennial Arts Committee, Westport CT, "Westport Artists of the Past", June 11-30, 1976
The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., "Arthur G. Dove and Duncan Phillips", June 16 - August 1981, circulated to the High Museum, Atlanta, Nelson-Atkins Gallery, Kansas City, Neuberger Museum, SUNY Purchase, Museum of Fine Art, Houston, Seattle Museum, New Milwaukee Art Center, through November 1982.
The Baltimore Museum of Art, "American Modernism from the Collection," June 25, 2003-
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
