One of the most personal and interesting painters in America today is
Arthur B. Davies. His painting ignores the commonplaces and unessentials
of life. “Never once does he wander from his dream, his vision,” writes
Samuel Isham. “His enchanted garden is not visited at rare intervals; it
is not one of many resorts, it is his home, his retreat from which he
never departs. It is a wonderful land of which he gives us glimpses—of
flowery meadows and bosky groves peopled by youth and childhood.” His
visions are naive, tender, whimsical, often vaguely allegorical, sometimes
a little unintelligible, but never trite nor sentimental. In his recent
work he seems to tend more and more toward the unintelligible, as his love
of the allegorical and the purely spiritual grows.
To Night’s Overture much of these remarks may seem not to apply. Here is
nothing of the naive, the whimsical, the allegorical. And yet this
landscape is characteristic of Davies’ art. It is a highly spiritualized
and individual treatment of landscape, wonderfully decorative in color and
arrangement, and highly endowed with feeling.—The Martin B. Koon Memorial
Collection.