Arthur Wesley Dow
Arthur Wesley Dow (April 6, 1857 – December 13, 1922) was an American painter, printmaker, photographer and an arts educator.
Also recorded as Arthur W. Dow · Arthur Dow · A. W. Dow
Arthur Wesley Dow
Arthur Wesley Dow · The Cleveland Museum of Art · Gift of James and Hanna Bartlett · CC0
- Born
- 1857.
- Died
- 1922.
- Nationality
- United States.
- Occupation
- painter, printmaker, photographer, teacher and graphic artist.
- Fields
- landscape painting.
- Movements
- Pont-Aven School, Arts and Crafts movement and Japonisme.
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Arthur Wesley Dow (April 6, 1857 – December 13, 1922) was an American painter, printmaker, photographer and an arts educator.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Note VALÉORINE
Arthur Wesley Dow (1857–1922) was an American graphic artist, painter and photographer, among other activities. The graphic artist was associated with Arts and Crafts movement and Japonisme. Genres include landscape painting.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 27 September 2026
VALÉORINE
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Arthur Wesley Dow. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
Documentary evidence
Evidence Panel
not yet certified
- Identity
- resolved
- Independent source families
- 0
- Admitted assertions
- 0
- Open conflicts
- 0
Authority files
wikidata · Q711974 · wikipedia · Arthur Wesley Dow
In this article
Early life
Early life
Arthur Wesley Dow was born in Ipswich, Massachusetts, in 1857. Dow received his first art training in 1880 from Anna K. Freeland of Worcester, Massachusetts. The following year, Dow continued his studies in Boston with James M. Stone, a former student of Frank Duveneck and Gustave Bouguereau. In 1884, he went to Paris for his early art education, studying at the Académie Julian, under the supervision of the academic artists Gustave Boulanger and Jules Joseph Lefebvre.
Career
Career
In 1893, Dow was appointed assistant curator of the Japanese collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston under Ernest Fenellosa. Fenellosa introduced Dow to ukiyo‑e, the woodblock prints of Japan, which greatly influenced his later works. He accepted commissions for posters and other commercial work. In 1895, he designed the poster to advertise the Journal of Modern Art and in 1896, he designed the poster for an exhibition of Japanese prints. Over the course of his career, Dow taught art at a few major American arts training institutions, beginning with the Pratt Institute from 1896 to 1903. He also taught at the New York Art Students League, from 1898 to 1903. In 1900, Dow founded and served as the director of the Ipswich Summer School of Art in Ipswich, Massachusetts. From 1904 to 1922, he was a professor of fine arts at Columbia University Teachers College.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1857
Arthur Wesley Dow was born in 1857.
1922
Arthur Wesley Dow died at New York City.
Ideas on teaching art
His ideas were quite revolutionary for the period; Dow taught that rather than copying nature, individuals should create art through elements of the composition, such as line, mass, and color. He wanted leaders of the public to see art is a living force for all in everyday life, not as a sort of traditional ornament for the few. Dow suggested that the American lack of interest in art would improve if art was presented as a means of self-expression. He wanted people to be able to include personal experience in creating art. His ideas on art were published in his 1899 book Composition: A Series of Exercises in Art Structure for the Use of Students and Teachers. The following extracts are from the prefatory chapter "Beginnings" to the second edition of this book (1912): Composition... expresses the idea upon which the method here presented is founded - the "putting together" of lines, masses and colors to make a harmony.... Composition, building up of harmony, is the fundamental process in all the fine arts.... A natural method is of exercises in progressive order, first building up very simple harmonies... Such a method of study includes all kinds of drawing, design and painting. It offers a means of training for the creative artist, the teacher or one who studies art for the sake of culture.
Death and legacy
Death and legacy
Dow died on December 13, 1922, in his home in New York City. He was interred in the Old North Burying Ground in Ipswich, Massachusetts. He was survived by his wife Eleanor Pearson, whom he married in 1893.
Influence on others
Influence on others
Dow taught many of America's leading artists and craftspeople, including: Georgia O'Keeffe, Shirley Williamson, Charles Sheeler, Charles J. Martin, two of the Overbeck Sisters, Delle Miller, Charles Burchfield, Isabelle Percy West and Walter King Stone. One of his pupils, the educator and printmaker Pedro Joseph de Lemos, adapted and widely disseminated Dow's theories in dozens of theoretical and instructional publications (1918–1950) for art schools. Early in his career, the young Frank Lloyd Wright was influenced by Dow. Dow also had influence at the Byrdcliffe Colony.
Collections
The Dow Collection at the Ipswich Museum in Ipswich, Massachusetts is the largest single collection of the artist's works. Art by Dow is also represented in the following collections: Addison Gallery of American Art Amon Carter Museum of American Art Art Institute of Chicago Brooklyn Museum Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art Metropolitan Museum of Art Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Museum of the American Arts and Crafts Movement Princeton University Art Museum San Diego Museum of Art Smithsonian American Art Museum Terra Foundation for American Art Wadsworth Athenaeum
Dragon and Orchard, c. 1908, by Arthur Wesley Dow
Arthur Wesley Dow · The Cleveland Museum of Art · Gift from funds of various donors to the Department of Prints and Drawings
Moonrise, c. 1915, by Arthur Wesley Dow
Arthur Wesley Dow · The Cleveland Museum of Art · John L. Severance Fund
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Dr. Arthur W. Dow, Noted Artist, Dies. The New York Times. 21. 1922-12-14.
- 2.Glueck, Grace. ART IN REVIEW; 'The Photographs of Arthur Wesley Dow'. The New York Times. November 15, 2002.
- 3.Arthur Wesley Dow. Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM).
- 4.Frederick Campbell Moffatt. The Breton Years of Arthur Wesley Dow. Archives of American Art Journal. 15. 2. 2–8. 1975. 10.1086/aaa.15.2.1556933.
- 5.Waller, S. (ed.), Foreign Artists and Communities in Modern Paris, 1870-1914: Strangers in Paradise, Routledge, 2017, p. 119
- 6.Columbia University Teachers College Announcements, 1906-07:13;
- 7.Ipswich, Historic. Arthur Wesley Dow. Historic Ipswich. 2022-02-10.
- 8.Green, Nancy E. Dow, Arthur Wesley Grove Art. www.oxfordartonline.com. 2011. 978-1-884446-05-4.
- 9.Cannon, Jennie Vennerström. Jennie V. Cannon: The Untold History of the Carmel and Berkeley Art Colonies. East Bay Heritage Project. 1. 665–666. 2012.
- 10.Craig, Susan V. Biographical Dictionary of Kansas Artists (active before 1945). 148. 2006.
- 11.Charles E. Burchfield: By Design > Exhibitions > Burchfield Penney Art Center. www.burchfieldpenney.org.
- 12.Koplos, Janet. Makers: A History of American Studio Craft. University of North Carolina Press. 82. 2010. 9780807834138.
- 13.Stone, Walter King. A Stone's Throw. Friends of Walter King Stone. 1961.
- 14.Edwards, Robert W. Pedro de Lemos, Lasting Impressions: Works on Paper. Davis Publications Inc. 57–62, 90–91 notes 300–327. 2015. 9781615284054.
- 15.Schrenk, Lisa D. (2021). The Oak Park Studio of Frank Lloyd Wright. University of Chicago Press. pp. 103-104. *Nute, Kevin (1993). Frank Lloyd Wright and Japan: The Role of Traditional Japanese Art and Architecture in the Work of Frank Lloyd Wright. Van Nostrand Reinhold. p. 86. .
- 16.Douglas C. Allen. United States of America: Art Education. Grove Art Online.
- 17.Dow. Bulletin of the College Art Association of America. 1918.
- 18.The Dow Collection Ipswich Museum.
- 19.Arthur Wesley Dow: Nearest to the Divine. Addison Gallery.
- 20.Arthur Wesley Dow. Amon Carter Museum of American Art.
- 21.Dow, Arthur Wesley. Boats at Rest. c. 1895.
- 22.The Long Road--Argilla Road, Ipswich. Brooklyn Museum.
- 23.Arthur Wesley Dow. FAMSF.
- 24.Arthur Wesley Dow, The Lost Boat (The Derelict). Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art.
- 25.Modern Art, 1895. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
- 26.Collection search: Arthur Wesley Dow. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
- 27.American Arts & Crafts Woodblock Prints. Museum of the American Arts & Crafts Movement.
- 28.Collections Search: Arthur Wesley Dow. Princeton University Art Museum.
- 29.Arthur Wesley Dow, Moonrise. Terra Foundation for American Art.
- 30.Collection search: Arthur Wesley Dow. Wadsworth Atheneum.
Bibliography printed in the source article · 4
- Arthur Wesley Dow. Theory and Practice of Teaching Art. Teachers College, Columbia University. 1912.
- Arthur Wesley Dow. Constructive Art-Teaching. Teachers College Bulletin. Columbia University. January 1913.
- Arthur Wesley Dow. A Course in Fine Art. Bulletin of the College Art Association of America. 1. 4. 4 no. September 1918.
- Arthur Wesley Dow. Composition: A Series of Exercises in Art Structure for the Use of Students and Teachers. Doubleday, Page & Company. 1920.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Wikidata, structured authority record Q711974: Arthur Wesley DowWikimedia Foundation
Partially resolvedreference work
Partially resolved
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Prints
4,138 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Arthur John StruttEngraver
- Arthur KöpckeEngraver
- Arthur MurchEngraver
- Arthur N. ChristieEngraver
- Arturo R. LuzEngraver
- Ary RenanEngraver
- Asher Brown DurandEngraver
- Ashley BickertonEngraver
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Arthur Wesley Dow?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.