The Lure of the Chase
Maker
Arthur Bowen Davies
(American, 1862 - 1928)
ClassificationsPAINTINGS
Date1905
Mediumoil on canvas
Dimensions18 x 40 in. (45.7 x 101.6 cm.)
SignedSigned in lower left of recto: A. B. Davies
InscribedSigned in lower left of recto: A. B. Davies
Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Purchased with funds from the Art Collectors' Council, Margery and Maurice Katz, and the Virginia Steele Scott Foundation
Label TextIn The Lure of the Chase, Arthur B. Davies conveyed the grandeur of the Sierra Nevada Mountains near Lake Tahoe through the panoramic format and by using thin, indistinct washes of blue and lavender to suggest infinite space. Figures such as the stag, hounds, and enigmatic people at the bottom of the composition are often found in Davies's work and are meant to be poetic and symbolic rather than to evoke a specific narrative.
Arthur B. Davies was a pivotal figure in 20th-century American art. In 1908 he participated in "The Eight," an exhibition of the work of eight artists who rebelled against conservative taste. A few years later, he was the principal organizer of the 1913 "International Exhibition of Modern Art," the first major Modernist exhibition in the United States. Known as the "Armory Show," it changed the course of American art by exposing American artists to the work of European Modernists, including Pablo Picasso and Marcel Duchamp.
Status
On viewObject number2007.7
