Sketchbook II
1881
Medium
Maroon buckram cover, tinted paper pages with designs in graphite and watercolor
Dimensions
11.2 × 17.7 × 1 cm (4 7/16 × 7 × 7/16 in.)
Classification
sketchbook
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
62732
Art Historical Context
This compact sketchbook, created by Arthur B. in 1881, offers an intimate glimpse into the artist’s formative years. Measuring just over four by seven inches, the volume features a sturdy maroon buckram cover protecting its tinted pages, which contain designs rendered in graphite and watercolor. Such portable formats were essential tools for artists of the period, allowing them to record observations and experiment freely while traveling or working outdoors. The combination of graphite line work with delicate watercolor washes on colored paper demonstrates Davies’s early interest in tonal eff...
About the Artist
Arthur B. Davies · 1862–1928
Arthur Bowen Davies (1862–1928) occupies one of the most paradoxical positions in American art history: a painter whose own canvases were lyrical, dreamlike, and rooted in the classical tradition, yet whose organizational energy and curatorial vision helped force American audiences into direct confrontation with the European avant-garde. Born on 26 September 1862 in Utica, New York, to English and...