# Arthur Garfield Dove artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/arthur-garfield-dove/
Profile generated: 2026-05-23T05:15:45.000Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1880-08-02
- Death date: 1946-11-23
- Nationality: American
- Movements: Early American Modernism, Abstract Art
- Common media: oil paint, watercolor, pastel, collage, tempera, wax emulsion, mixed media

## About Arthur Garfield Dove

Arthur Garfield Dove (1880–1946) was an American painter widely regarded as the first American abstract artist. Born in Canandaigua, New York, Dove became a central figure in early American modernism, producing boldly reductive compositions that drew on natural forms while pushing toward pure abstraction. His practice spanned oil, watercolor, pastel, collage, and mixed media, and he frequently combined materials in unconventional ways—layering hand-mixed tempera over wax emulsion, for example—to achieve richly textured surfaces. Notable works such as Me and the Moon (1937) and Tanks (1938) exemplify his mature synthesis of landscape observation and abstract invention. Represented in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Dove's influence on generations of American painters remains significant, and his work appears regularly in the American-art and modern-art auction markets.

## Common works and media

Dove's most commonly encountered works include oil paintings on canvas and board, watercolors, pastels, collages, and mixed-media compositions. His subjects center on abstracted landscapes, natural forms, and organic motifs. The experimental collages he produced in the 1920s and the abstract landscape paintings of the 1930s and 1940s represent two significant bodies of work. Works range from small studies and works on paper to larger gallery-scale paintings. Drawings and illustrations also appear in institutional and auction contexts.

## Market and appraisal context

Arthur Dove's work appears at auction under American Art and Modern Art categories, with strong institutional representation reinforcing collector confidence. Oil paintings from his mature period of the 1930s and early 1940s tend to generate the strongest market interest. Works on paper, watercolors, and collages offer more accessible price tiers. Appraisal of Dove's work should account for his experimental material combinations, which can present condition considerations, as well as provenance linked to the Alfred Stieglitz gallery circle. Collectors should verify authenticity through catalogue raisonné references and review condition reports carefully given his mixed-media techniques.

## Appraisily data basis

This Appraisily artist page combines artist identity research from museum, library-authority, and biographical sources with auction records, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available. Identity and biographical data are grounded in records from the Getty Union List of Artist Names, VIAF, the Library of Congress, the RKD Netherlands Institute for Art History, the Museum of Modern Art, and Wikidata.

## Sources

- RKD — Netherlands Institute for Art History: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/24061
- The Museum of Modern Art: https://www.moma.org/artists/1602
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500018046
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/42647501/
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q709461
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Dove
- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n81063231