Sweet Tremulous Leaves

1922/1923

Arthur B. Davies

Associated Names
Arthur B. Davies
Painter, American, 1862 - 1928
This painting depicts two nude women standing, facing the left. The women have pale skin, and the woman on the left has red-blond hair while the woman on the right has dark brown hair. They are both reaching upward, and behind them is a tall tree with green leaves. Behind the tree is a green landscape with distant blue mountains under a cloudy blue sky.

Media Options

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In 1918, after a four-year period in which he experimented with a cubist-influenced style, Arthur B. Davies revisited the idealized, romantic representations of female nudes in pastoral settings that he had painted during the first decade of the twentieth century. Sweet Tremulous Leaves (1922/1923) reflects this return to his earlier interests in mythology, dreams, photography, and classical Greek and Roman art.

In this mysterious, dreamlike scene, two contemplative women seem to drift across the composition as if in a trance, their upraised arms aligned with the trunk and branches of a tree. The two figures reflect the “theory of inhalation” that Davies had recently developed in collaboration with archaeologist Dr. Gustavus A. Eisen. The theory asserts that the source of the superiority (in Davies’s view) of ancient Greek art is the deliberate depiction of the subjects at the height of inhaling.

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Chester Dale Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 77.2 x 46.4 cm (30 3/8 x 18 1/4 in.)
    framed: 97.8 x 67.6 x 3.2 cm (38 1/2 x 26 5/8 x 1 1/4 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1963.10.119

More About this Artwork

This nearly square painting shows an industrial area with buildings, storage silos, a smokestack, and railroad tracks. A mound of brown dirt or other material is in shadow in the lower left corner of the painting. Next to the mound, railroad tracks extend diagonally from the lower center of the painting into the distance to our right. The tracks end at a white building with staggered gray rooflines to our right in the distance. A tall terracotta-red smokestack rises high beyond the white building, smoke pouring out of its top and blending into the clouds above. Just beyond the mound of dirt, piles of white material, perhaps in unseen bins, line the railroad track to our left and lead back to a row ten interconnected, coral-orange silos. The horizon comes about halfway up the painting, and it is lined with a row of long white and gray warehouses. The artist signed and dated the work with brown paint in the lower right corner: “Sheeler 31.”

Scholarly Series:  American Paintings, 1900–1945

Scholarly Article:  American Paintings, 1900–1945: Sweet Tremulous Leaves, 1922/1923

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Purchased from the artist by (Ferargil Galleries, New York); sold 8 January 1927 to Chester Dale [1883-1962], New York; bequest 1963 to NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1924

  • An Exhibition of Paintings, Drawings, and Water Colors by Arthur B. Davies, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, 1924, no. 29.

1937

  • An Exhibition of American Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection, The Union League Club, New York, 1937, no. 42.

1943

  • Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1943-1951, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

1965

  • The Chester Dale Bequest, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1965, unnumbered checklist.

Bibliography

1931

  • Davies, Virginia M. "The Known Works of Arthur B. Davies." In Royal Cortissoz, Arthur B. Davies. New York, 1931: 33.

1943

  • Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. Philadelphia, 1943:, unpaginated, repro.

1965

  • Paintings other than French in the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 59, repro.

1970

  • American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 48, repro.

1980

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 142, repro.

1981

  • Williams, William James. A Heritage of American Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1981: repro. 206, 208.

1992

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 155, repro.

1998

  • Perlman, Bennard B. The Lives, Loves, and Art of Arthur B. Davies. Albany, 1998: 226, repro. no. 51.

Inscriptions

lower left: A.B. DAVIES

Wikidata ID

Q20192422

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