Andante

Art Historical Context

**Andante** (1916) by Arthur. Davies is a delicate graphic arts print housed in the Smithsonian American Art, acquired through museum purchase. Davies, a pivotal figure in 20th-century American art helped organize the groundbreaking Armory Show of 1913, which European modernism to the U.S. By 1916, his work had evolved from the gritty realism of the Ashcan School toward a more poetic, Symbolist-inspired style, often featuring ethereal nudes in harmonious, dreamlike settings. The title *Andante*—a musical term evoking a gentle, flowing tempo—hints at the artwork's lyrical rhythm and serene mood...

About the Artist

Arthur B. Davies · 1862–1928

Arthur Bowen Davies (1862–1928) occupies one of the most paradoxical positions in American art history: a painter whose own canvases were lyrical, dreamlike, and rooted in the classical tradition, yet whose organizational energy and curatorial vision helped force American audiences into direct confrontation with the European avant-garde. Born on 26 September 1862 in Utica, New York, to English and...