Arthur G. Dove (1880-1946)

As seen through the sense of personality embodied by the swans in the present work, Arthur Dove "believed that everything in the world was a living, vital presence, and once said that 'we cannot let a person control our thoughts who does not let the lower orders in. Animals, fish and birds have as much right to any spiritual royalty as any intellectual.'" (B. Haskell, Arthur Dove, San Francisco, California, 1974, p. 118) A very similar watercolor is in The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.