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From Church to Dove: One Hundred Years of American Painting from the Heckscher Museum of Art |
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Indian Summer 1941 Oil on canvas 20 x 28 inches Heckscher Museum of Art, Museum Purchase, Heckscher Trust Fund |
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In 1920, Dove moved to Long Island with artist Helen Torr, whom he married in 1930 after the death of his first wife. With the exception of a 5-year stint in Geneva, NY (1933-38), the couple remained in Long Island for the remainder of their lives. Dove suffered a bout of pneumonia and a subsequent heart attack in 1938; by 1941, he had regained some of his strength and was vitalized by the adventitious arrival of Indian summer in early November. The strong, bright colors and bold composition of Indian Summer possibly reflect the artist's growing optimism during the period of renewed strength and vitality. In 1952, a critic in The New York Times wrote of it as "an unmistakable depiction of mood—a mood of warmth and languor, as when the ubiquitous earlier greenery of the full season has given way once more to let forms emerge before the cold of late autumn sets in." The forms in the painting have been identified as American Indian in inspiration, and similarly inspired motifs appear in other works by Dove of this period. | ||