Collection in Focus: Material Experimentation in Arthur Dove’s “Boat Going through Inlet”

Arthur Dove was a prolific, energetic, and experimental artist. He worked in oil, pastel, metallic paint, tempera, and gouache on traditional supports like canvas and wood, and on unusual supports like tin, linen, and glass. Boat Going tThrough Inlet was painted on a sheet of silvery tin, and Dove left some parts of the tin visible through the paint, which is applied in wide, short strokes. The tin shines in the light, heightening the effect of the watery scene.

In this video, Rachael Z. DeLue, Professor of Art History at Princeton University, explains how Dove used the tin to his advantage.