Gloucester (Davits)

Details

STUART DAVIS (1892-1964)
Gloucester (Davits)
signed 'Stuart Davis' (center right)
oil on canvas
19 x 24 ¼ in. (48.3 x 61.6 cm.)
Painted circa 1932.

Provenance

The artist.
Estate of the above.
The Downtown Gallery, New York.
Private collection, 1968.
Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., New York, 1985.
Acquired by the late owners from the above, 1987.

Literature

A. Boyajian, M. Rutkowski, Stuart Davis: A Catalogue Raisonné, vol. III, New Haven, Connecticut, 2007, pp. 264-65, no. 1586, illustrated.

Exhibited

(Probably) New York, The Downtown Gallery, Stuart Davis: Recent Paintings, Oil and Watercolor, April 25-May 12, 1934, no. 9 (as Funnel).
(Probably) New York, The Artist’s Gallery, June 9-30, 1941 (as Two-color Landscape Study).
Purchase, New York, State University of New York, Purchase College, Neuberger Museum of Art, Area Code 914 and 302: The Private Eye, 20th Century Art from New York and Connecticut Collections, April 8-June 10, 1984 (as Gloucester).
New York, Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., Modern Times: Aspects of American Art, 1907-1956, November 1-December 6, 1986, p. 26, no. 19, illustrated.

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Lot Essay

Stuart Davis’ Gloucester (Davits) cleverly transforms a harbor in Gloucester, Massachusetts, into a simplified scene that strays from direct representation, as is typical of his increasingly stylized, abstracted compositions of the 1930s. Here, Davis reduces the crane-like davits—which appear to lift and anchor—into simple lines that intricately overlap.

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