Style Imitating Art…
Welcome back for my interpretation of a piece of very different art! Salazar, Shelbee, and I are the curators. You can think of this series as fashion meets art museum! SIA challenges people to find inspiration in different art works, create looks based upon that art work, and share them with the curator for that piece. I chose this rather strange painting for us, but I really like it. I hope you enjoy this post, the information, and my interpretation.
How it works…
Every other Monday one of us selects an inspiration piece of art and posts the image on their blog. We then invite others to interpret that art work through their style. The following Monday, we share our outfits. The curator shares submissions the following Wednesday on her blog. I chose this week’s art work for this round of Style Imitating Art. If you’d like, you can read why I chose it here. Please send your photo to me by Tuesday, November 3rd, 2026 by 10 pm EST. Style Imitating Art is an interesting way to inspire your outfits. You can see a few of my looks here, here, here, and here.
The artist…
Arthur Garfield Dove was named for the Republican presidential and vice-presidential candidates in the election year of 1880, James Garfield and Chester Arthur. BTW, they won. He was born in Canandaigua in the Finger Lakes region of New York on August 2 and raised in nearby Geneva. Dove’s family was fairly affluent as his father owned a brickyard and was also a building contractor as well as owning some city real estate. The family lived on a large farm where Dove experienced nature. Part of this was due to the proximity, but a lot of the credit goes to Newton Weatherby, a neighbor who happened to be a naturalist. Weatherby would take the young Dove along on “hunting, fishing, and camping excursions conductive to Dove’s appreciation of nature. Weatherby was also an amateur painter who gave Dove pieces of leftover canvas to work with.” Dove also played the piano, took painting lessons, and pitched on his high school baseball team. His parents, naturally, wanted him to attend a good college and become wealthy. They indulged his artistic bent, but expected him to become a lawyer. In fact, they were so incensed by his refusal to use his Ivy League diploma to make money that they didn’t support him financially when he was struggling.
Early years…
Dove first attended Hobart College then transferred to Cornell University from which he graduated in 1903. Shortly after, he moved to New York City where he worked as a freelance magazine illustrator for several years, creating covers for Harper’s and the Saturday Evening Post. In 1904, Dove married Florence Dorsey. The couple pretty much moved to Europe in 1907 and stayed until 1910. During that time, Dove discovered the European avant-garde work of Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso. He also met and became friends with other American artists in Paris at the time…among them…Alfred Maurer and Max Weber. It was Maurer who introduced him to the European modernist painters. While in Paris, Dove exhibited “impressionist and fauve works at the Salon d’Automne.”
A little more…
The couple returned to New York in 1910. At first, Dove tried the commercial illustrating work but found it to be “unsatisfying.” They returned to the family farm. Dove’s plan was to farm and fish and use the rest of his time working on his painting. His son, William was born on July 4, 1909. When he returned to New York, Dove experimented with abstraction, “’ “extracting’ his forms from the external world.” By 1910-1911, Dove had produced several “inventive works of art that used stylized, abstract forms at a remarkably early date in American art; he is considered the first American artist to have created such purely nonrepresentational imagery.” It was at this time, he encountered Alfred Stieglitz. Stieglitz (yes…that Stieglitz…the one married to Georgie O’Keefe) was a photographer but more importantly a maker of “men” in that he ran several art galleries and introduced the world to the avant-garde painters coming up through the ranks. Dove exhibited at Stieglitz’s 291 Gallery. Stieglitz included his work in the Younger American Painters exhibition in 1910. Other painters included were John Marin, Marsden Hartley and Edward J. Steichen. Dove had his first solo exhibition there in 1912. That exhibition “introduced an audience to a body of pastels and paintings that have since been recognized as among the earliest purely abstract works produced anywhere.” Dove became the first 20th-century American artist to “make purely abstract paintings, a practice he continued throughout his career.”
Abstract art…
Dove truly was the first American abstract painter as he continued to explore truly nonrepresentational imagery.
…he expressed his desire ‘to make something that is real in itself, that does not remind anyone of any other thing, and that does not have to be explained – like the letter A for instance.’”
Throughout the next decade, Dove continued to explore different ways to create abstract pieces. He was influenced by Cubism by Kandinsky’s Expressionism as well as the writings of French philosopher, Henri Bergson. Bergson stressed “the importance of a mystical, rather than analytical, understanding of the world. Bergson proposed the existence of an ‘élan vital,’ a spirit or energy that constantly animates all living things in their fight for existence. This idea appealed to Dove, who himself was fascinated with natural cycles of growth and renewal and sought to make those universal harmonies visible in his work. He was also frequently inspired by the parallel between the visual arts and music.”
A little more…
“The densely layered composition of Plant Forms recalls Cubist precedents, with its abstract pattern of overlapping straight and curvilinear forms. At the same time, Dove’s aesthetic language reflected his profound connection to the American landscape. His sensory responses to the natural world are conveyed through the subtle shading of the forms as well as the use of pastel, a medium Dove had turned to the previous year, applying it to canvas rather than paper to create luminous surfaces and an immediacy of color. Calling his technique “extraction,” Dove sought to distill the inner essence of his subjects rather than analyze their outward physical form. ‘I would rather look at nature than to try to imitate it,’ he remarked.”
Financial problems…
The problem, however, was people in the United States didn’t quite get Dove’s “innovative work,” and he struggled financially. This was during the time when he was also trying to run a farm in Westport, Connecticut. In 1916, Dove exhibited at the Forum Gallery Show and at the Society of Independent Artists in 1917. He also returned to commercial illustration as well as farming and fishing in order to support his family. After visiting Stieglitz’s gallery, Duncan Phillips, the found of the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, became Dove’s “most consistent supporter.” For a stipend of $50.00 a month, Phillips received first choice of paintings from any of Dove’s exhibitions. “Dove’s work convinced Phillips that abstract was an artistic process, not just an art style.” The two men met exactly once in 1936. In 1936, Phillips bought Goin Fishin for $2,000 which was the most Dove had received for his work at the time.
Other art techniques…
In addition to painting, Dove also created assemblages which are three-dimensional works of art made from combinations of materials including found or purchased objects. He also experimented with collages in the 1920s as well as different techniques. One of these was “combining paints like oil and/or tempera over a wax emulsion.” His collages and assemblages were “meticulously crafted…of various materials and found objects from 1924 to 1930.”
Marriage problems…
By 1920, Dove’s marriage to Florence had fallen apart…probably due to his long-term relationship with Helen “Reds” Torr, another artist. His wife refused to grant him a divorce. In 1921, Dove left Florence and his son. Florence refused access to their son, William, for the rest of her life. Dove and Torr (who was married to the illustrator, Clive Weed) began living together on a 42 foot houseboat, sailing around Long Island Sound. Docked at Halesite on the north shore of Long Island, Dove was able to observe the “ocean tides, weather patterns, and seasonal cycles” which became the primary subjects for art. He simplified these observations “into its [sic] essential forms with expressive color and line.” This next bit, I’ll be honest, I don’t understand at all. Dove used his art as part of “his quest for a symbolic color effect that he called ‘a condition of light.’ As he described the latter idea in an autobiographical essay (published in Samuel M. Kootz, Modern American Painters, 1930), ‘It applied to all objects in nature, flowers, trees, people, apples, cows. These all have their certain condition of light, which establishes them to the eye, to each other, and to the understanding.’” Florence died in 1929. Dove and Torr married in 1932.
Return to the farm…
After Dove’s mother’s death in 1933, he inherited the family estate with his brother. The estate was riddled with debt. Because Dove was continually in a financial struggle, he and Torr returned to Geneva, and Dove tried, once again, to make a living as a farmer. He remained there until 1938. Even though he thought Geneva “provincial,” it did give him lots of new subject matter for his art. This included the “family farm, the local barnyard animals, and nearby lakes, as well as the city’s more industrial downtown area of warehouses and railroad tracks.” He kept in close contact with Stieglitz but returned to New York only once during this time. During this time, Dove “concentrated more than ever on themes of interdependence between living creatures and their environments and on the purely formal appeal of natural objects’ shapes and lines, which he emphasized to the point of abstraction with organic shapes and unexpected color schemes. He shared these interests with Georgia O’Keeffe, who was perhaps his closest ally among the other artists of the Stieglitz circle.”
Later years…
In 1938, Dove and Torr moved to a small house in Centerpoint, Long Island. In 1939, he had a heart attack which was complicated by a kidney disorder. The remainder of his life was spent as a semi-invalid. Rather than give up his art, Dove continued experimenting with form and medium. His diary “recorded his artistic goals alongside observations of the natural surroundings.” On August 5, 1942, he wrote in his diary and directed himself to:
“work at the ‘point where abstraction and reality meet’ (Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution). Some of his works of the 1940s drew inspiration from the local landmarks of his town on the Long Island shore. Coming full circle, he also produced a number of paintings and drawings that are as purely nonrepresentational as the innovative works of his early career.”
Death…
On November 22, 1946, Arthur Garfield Dove died of a second heart attack in Huntington, Long Island. Dove’s effect on the art world came through on abstract landscape painters such as Georgia O’Keeffe and Julian Hatton. Many consider Dove’s work as an indirect influence on the first generation of Abstract Expressionists, like Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko, both of whom “placed similar emphasis on the artist’s subjective experience of his surroundings and on the intrinsic emotional power of color and line.” Dove was interred at the Memorial Cemetery of St. John’s Church in Cold Spring Harbor, New York. In October, Dove wrote to Phillips:
“You have no idea what sending on those checks to me at this time. After fighting for an idea all your life I realize that your backing has saved it for me and meant to thank you with all my heart and soul for what you have done. It has been marvelous. So many letters have been written and not mailed and owing to having been in bed a great deal of time this summer, the paintings were about all I could muster up enough energy to do what I considered the best of my ability. Just before Stieglitz’s death I took some paintings to him that I considered as having something new in the. He immediately walked right up to them and spoke of the new ideas. His intuition in that way was remarkable and I am so glad to have been allowed to live during his and your lifetimes. It has been a great privilege for which I am truly thankful.”
The artwork…
The Electric Peach Orchard was painted in 1935 and measures 20 1/4 x 28 in. (51.435 x 71.12 cm.) Framed, it measures: 22 5/8 in x 30 1/2 in x 1 3/4 in (57.47 cm x 77.47 cm x 4.45 cm). It is wax emulsion on canvas and is part of the Modern Art Holdings at The Phillips Collection. I’m not sure if that means it’s on display or not. It was acquired in 1935 and is described on the website as:
“Here Dove transforms a diagonal row of trees into a series of writhing forms whose branches are linked by agitated, tendril-like lines that are literal representations of electric currents. These lines, which extend from the sky into the trees, also signify an interaction between the land and the atmosphere, perhaps the trees’ absorption of light or moisture. Dove, who was familiar with theosophical ideas of the late 19th and early 20th centuries which emphasized creating visual equivalents for nature’s hidden energies, may also have been influenced by other mystical theories that suggested electricity was physical proof of a fourth dimension and an unseen spiritual world.”
Sources…
Metropolitan Museum of Art/The Met
Whitney Museum of American Art
My interpretation…
This has to one of the hardest pieces of art we’ve had…at least for me! And, I picked it! But, in the end, I went with the color scheme while trying to add in some nature. This J Jill Linen Blend Vintage Palms Midi is still available in limited sizes and is on sale! Obviously, it’s a maxi on me as I’m only 5’1″! I thought the colors came closest to those seen on the artwork. as well as having nature as a starting point. I added a very old J Jill crocheted cardigan to get more green in the outfit. This dress appeared once on a Fashion Files post, but I wore a cardigan that matched the blues better. I am not sure I hit the mark, but I think I came close!
The Lewk!
I know, I know! You’ve seen these over and over. But, when you have a winner, you have a winner! These are my Miz Mooz Freya making another appearance on the blog. I realized my dress wasn’t very abstract, but I thought this necklace by Michael Michaud could definitely be seen as one of the forms in our artwork. I then added a pair of Michael Michaud hoops with seed pearls as well as a cuff in the leaf pattern. So, I was going for abstract and the natural world Dove so loved.
Wrap it up, Marsha!
Even though I struggled with both understanding some of the concepts of Dove’s art as well as coming up with an interpretation, I was fascinated by his life. I just can’t wrap my head around being the first to do something of any kind, and here’s Dove creating a new kind of art. I am not sure I would have enjoyed living on a boat with him, though! So, can we talk? Do you understand Dove’s “condition of light? If so, please explain it to me! What do you think about living on a 42 foot boat for seven years? Are you a fan of abstract art? Please leave me a comment or two, and we can talk. I promise to respond as quickly as I can.
Don’t forget…
If you want to be included in the Style Imitating Art round up, send me your photo by 10:00 pm EST, November 3rd, 2026. Photos of everyone participating will appear on my blog on Wednesday, November 4th! If you’re interested in joining us, consider all of your options…the colors, the textures, the feelings they evoke! Come on, give it a try! I think you’ll love it!
Thank you!
I want to thank all of you from the bottom of my heart for reading, commenting, subscribing or emailing! It truly means so much to me! If you’d like to follow me on Instagram, you can find me here.
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Where you can find me:
Linking up with Nancy’s Fashion Style, Is This Mutton, and Shelbee on the Edge. I also link up with I do deClaire, Mummabstylish, and Style Splash as well as the Senior Salon Pit Stop and Slices of Life. Please check out these wonderful ladies and their blogs! I also am a co-host for Ageless Style on the third Thursday of the month and Songful Style on the last Monday of the month as well as the Global Writing Challenge on the second Thursday. I now co-host Fashion Files with Amy at Coffee and Cocktails at the Casa every Tuesday. I co-host Traffic Jam Weekend every Thursday with Melynda, Lisa, Cat, and Rena. I also host 10 on the 10th on the 10th of the month! I do hope you’ll check out all of these blogs and link parties!
I think this is a very good outfit! And such a beautiful painting! Looking forward to see what everyone else is wearing!
I love the dress and cardigan that you have chosen for this. Sorry the art doesn’t speak to me, but other people’s lives can be fascinating to read about.