Dove - "Along Long Pier" Abstract watercolor painting on paper of buildings along a pier

Arthur Dove • American: 1880-1946

Along Long Pier C: 1938 • Watercolor on Paper 5” x 7”

On one corner of a dirt crossroad in Centerpoint, New York, sits a simple cottage where two unconventional artists spent their final years. The Dove-Torr Cottage, along Long Island Sound is now a National Historic Site. Arthur Dove and Helen “Reds” Torr lovingly rebuilt the old post office into a cozy, one-room cottage that reflected the rather twisted road they took to get there, and the many crossroads they had to navigate.

August 5, 1942: Arthur Garfield Dove wrote a note to himself in his daily journal. “Develop artistic works that live at the point where abstraction and reality meet.” It perfectly captured a life always lived at the meeting point between two opposites. His life had many such crossroads with one road always leading toward the “conventional” and the other toward the “intriguing.”

When it came to his career he began by studying law at Cornell and ended up an artist. The idea of living his life within the confines of stuffy legal books and offices set him off on another direction, against his family wishes but true to his heart’s desire.

His love life also started in one direction and ended in another. He began in a traditional marriage to Florence while working as as a conventional illustrator. Florence accompanied him on a fateful trip to Paris where he was introduced to the works of Cezanne and Matisse, as well as a group of young artists working in wildly abstract styles, including Helen Torr, a passionate young artist with wild red hair. Torr, known as “Reds” and Florence were opposites in every way, including their love or art. When Dove and Florence reached an inevitable crossroads their differences were too glaring to ignore, so he went one way and she another. His new road included companion Helen Torr. Together they lived a life as unconventional as his life with Florence had been traditional, although they finally married after Florence died.

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Dove’s artwork journeyed along an equally crooked direction. He was one of the earliest American artists to use stylized, often complex, abstract forms. But, when his work again reached a crossroads, he took a new direction taking realistic subjects and reducing them to their most simple forms.

Of course, a man so dedicated to change could never live in one place or one way. He loved cosmopolitan New York, but lived almost his entire life in either the rural enclave of Geneva, New York, or small towns along the Long Island shore. Their changing lifestyles saw Dove and “Reds” enjoying life on a houseboat, a sailboat, his mother’s home and, finally, a self-renovated old post office building on the Long Island shore. There they formed their most lasting legacy as the “Dove-Torr” cottage became a National Historic Site after Torr’s death.

By the (too early) end of Dove’s life he had influenced a generation of Abstract Expressionist artists who shared his love of color and line, as well as the thrill of using art to capture subjective emotions. It was a life lived “at the meeting point between two opposites.” Always at the crossroads, never the straight and narrow.

Canton Museum of Art Permanent Collection • Purchased in Memory of Edward A. & Rosa J. Langenback, 2010.26

4 Ways to Sound Smart When Viewing at The Canton Museum of Art

1.
“This work was done later in Dove’s life, just before he left Geneva, NY, and shows actual objects. Early in his career he had been among the first American artist to create non-objective, abstract canvasses.”

2.
“Non-objective is a fancy way to say, ‘there are no recognizable shapes or objects.’”

3.
“The great love of Dove’s life was Helen Torr, another artist. Both left spouses for each other. They lived together on houseboats, sailboats, and a small seaside cottage.”

4.
“Two great benefactors really turbocharged his career … Alfred Stieglitz, the great art dealer, and Duncan Phillips the great modern art collector.”

Dove Timeline. Scroll over images to see timeline.

1880

Born near Lake Canandaigua in the upstate New York Finger Lakes. His father was a wealthy building contractor and owned a brick manufacturing company.

1903

Graduated from Cornell where he studied law. Rather than setting up a law practice, he moved to New York City to work as an illustrator for magazines and newspapers. His employers included Harpers Magazine and The Saturday Evening Post. His parents were ticked off by his career choice.

1907-09

Traveled with his first wife, Florence, to Paris where he met a number of young, avant-garde artists. He was also exposed to Fauvist art and was especially influenced by Henri Matisse. Dove exhibited work in the Autumn Salons of 1908 and 1909.

1909

Returned to New York where he was no longer satisfied with work as an illustrator. Instead, he worked as a farmer while building his fine arts career. His son, William, was born in the same year as he met Alfred Stieglitz, a famed New York art dealer who became a lifelong friend and booster.

1910

Exhibited at Stieglitz’ 291 Gallery as part of the show “Younger American Painters.”

1912

Stieglitz featured Dove’s work in his first one-man show at the 291 Gallery. This was the first public exhibition of American abstract art and included a group of Dove’s pastels collectively known as “The Ten Commandments.”

1920s

Famed art collector, Duncan Phillips, began collecting Dove’s work. He paid Dove $50 per month for the first choice of paintings from each of his exhibitions. Today, the largest collection of Dove’s work is in the Phillips Collection Museum in Washington, DC.

1921

Began a love affair with the artist Helen Torr, nicknamed “Reds” for her fiery red hair. He left his wife, Florence, who never shared his love of art. It was a difficult separation with Florence refusing to grant him a divorce or the right to see his son. Dove and Torr set up housekeeping on a houseboat.

1924

Dove and Torr sailed their houseboat into Huntington Harbor on Long Island’s north shore. This area became the focus of many of their best works as Dove established a unique abstract landscape style.

1929

Florence Dove died unexpectedly. Afterward, Dove was able to visit his son, also an artist, for the first time in eight years. They remained close for the remainder of his life. Late in 1929, Stieglitz opened a new gallery focused especially on the works of John Marin, Georgia O’Keefe and Dove.

1932

Dove and Torr married after she finally got around to divorcing her first husband, the illustrator Clive Weed.

1933

Dove’s mother died, so he and Torr moved into her Geneva, New York home. They remained for five years while he settled his mother’s debt-ridden estate. At the end of their time there, Dove painted “Long Pier” now housed at the Canton Museum of Art.

1938

Dove and Torr returned to Long Island and purchased a former post office building on Titus Mill Pond in Centerport, NY. This one-room cottage remained their home for the remainder of both their lives. Painted “Along the Pier” which was originally in the Stieglitz collection.

1939

Dove suffered a heart attack and his health never fully recovered. He spent all his remaining time painting scenes surrounding their cottage. His love of natural objects was shared by Georgia O’Keefe, another Stieglitz artist who was very close to Dove.

1946

Dove died after suffering a second heart attack and kidney failure. Earlier that year he had his last exhibit at the Stieglitz gallery. His dear friend Stieglitz, died a month after the exhibit and four months before Dove. Torr lived on at the cottage until her death in 1967. After her death the Dove-Torr Cottage became a National Historic Site.