集中收藏: The Sun/Moon in Arthur Dove’s “Boat Going through Inlet”

Arthur Dove painted the sun and the moon frequently throughout his career. In an intriguing diary he kept jointly in 1936–37 with his wife and fellow artist Helen Torr, he drew hundreds of small orbs, variously colored and frequently featuring tiny v’s on the black outline of the orb. Near each orb, Dove jots down the temperature, as well as brief descriptions of the weather: “Snow flurries.” “Cold wind.” Below, Dove describes routine domestic tasks, like having an electrician to his studio, and special gatherings, like the Halloween party he hosted on October 31st.

This pattern of orb, coupled with weather details and additional text, continued for two months. The meaning of the orbs is not entirely clear, but one scholar has proposed that they represent the phases of the moon, a theory bolstered by the fact that Dove made two paintings featuring the moon in 1937.

The attention Dove paid to the moon extended to his portrayal of the sun; both planets appear frequently throughout his work. The pale golden orb that sits in the prow of the boat in “Boat Going through Inlet” could either be interpreted as a sun or a moon, but Rachael Z. DeLue, Professor of Art History at Princeton University, believes it is the sun.