Spring Dance (or On Willow Brook)
Arthur B. Davies, Spring Dance (or On Willow Brook), lithograph, 1924, signed in pencil. Reference: Czestochowski 211, Price 116, only state. From the edition of 25. Printer: George C. Miller. In good condition apart from moderate light stain, remains of glue and backing from prior hinging verso. With margins, 12 x 19 1/2, the sheet 14 1/2 x 21 1/2 inches, archival mounting.
A very good impression of this classic Davies composition.
Provenance: Fort Worth Art Museum. This impression is the print shown in Czestochowski’s catalogue raisonne of the Davies prints. It is noted there that the impression was a “Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Edward R. Hudson, Jr.” The print was deaccessioned from the Fort Worth Art Museum and sold for its benefit at Sotheby’s New York on March, 2004. The Fort Worth cataloguing numbers are on the mat.
Arthur Davies was America’s pre-eminent artist at the time of the New York Armory Show (1913), and the organizers of the show (including Walt Kuhn) involved Davies as a way of lending prestige to the exhibit. Davies had much familiarity with his European counterparts and their work, and helped the organizers locate the work, and legitimate the entire enterprise. Spring Dance or On Willow Brook was done after a period in which Davies experimented with cubism; here he reverts to his earlier Symbolist/Impressionist leanings.