Dragon and Orchard (c. 1908): Art, History and Details

Dragon and Orchard (c. 1908) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Arthur Wesley Dow (American, 1857–1922).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

In his dual roles as artist and teacher, Dow was instrumental in reviving the color woodcut in America at the turn of the 20th century. Impressed by the flat, simplified compositions of Japanese color woodcuts, or ukiyo-e prints, Dow abandoned Western naturalism, with its linear modeling and one-point perspective, in favor of the basic elements of Japanese design: line, form, color, and notan—the harmonious arrangement of dark and light. Although in Japan the artist only executed the drawing—the carving and printing were carried out by craftsmen—Dow did everything himself. Like the Japanese, however, he printed by hand on mulberry paper. The picturesque Massachusetts fishing village of Ipswich and the surrounding area were Dow's subjects. The town is separated from the sea by sprawling salt marshes that are divided by canals and rivers. Dow expressed the changing effects of atmosphere and light by experimenting with color, which resulted in unique impressions.

Object facts

• Title: Dragon and Orchard
• Date: c. 1908
• Creator attribution: Arthur Wesley Dow (American, 1857–1922)
• Culture: America
• Type: Print
• Technique: color woodcut
• Dimensions: Sheet: 25.4 x 19.2 cm (10 x 7 9/16 in.); Image: 15.8 x 12.2 cm (6 1/4 x 4 13/16 in.)
• Collection: PR - Woodcut
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 2000.1

Collection credit

Gift from funds of various donors to the Department of Prints and Drawings

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cleveland Museum of Art, “Recent Acquisitions Press Release,” March 17, 2000, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.
• Glaubinger, Jane. "The Printmaker's Art." Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 40, no. 7 (September 2000): 8-9.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.