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A young woman dressed in robes stands forward, bent at waist and leaning sharply to the left.

The woman’s face and neck are in profile as her gaze looks sharply to the left. Her bent right arm opens the garment over her head protecting her face, while the straight left arm holds the garment out on the right side. Drawn in accurate detail, her draped garment flows from left to right as if by the wind. Horizontal lines resemble calm water and sky as the background. The drawing is lighter on the left, transitioning to darker on the right.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1940.88
People
John La Farge, American (New York, NY 1835 - 1910 Providence, RI)
Title
The Dawn
Other Titles
Alternate Title: Dawn Comes on the Edge of Night
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
drawing
Date
1880
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/307629

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Black crayon on darkened tan paper
Dimensions
33.7 x 32.4 cm (13 1/4 x 12 3/4 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: black crayon, l.r.: La Farge 80
  • inscription: l.l., black ink: Copyright by John La Farge 1903
  • exhibition label: [1990], verso of backing board, paper: #52
  • exhibition label: [1976], verso of backing board, paper: no. 76.1.158
  • inscription: verso of mount, black ink: The Dawn / Vanderbilt [noted in Yarnall catalogue]
  • label: verso of mount, paper: The Dawn / Vanderbilt [noted in Yarnall catalogue]
  • exhibition label: [1987], verso of mount, paper: no. 93
  • label: verso of mount, paper: AAG / 144

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
[Doll and Richards, Boston MA, 1899, 1901]. [William Macbeth Gallery, New York NY, 1909], sold; to Mrs. George Theodore Bliss (Jeannette Dwight), New York, NY, 1909; to her nephew, Frederick A. Dwight, Rumson, NJ, 1917. Gift of Mr. Dwight's family to the Fogg Art Museum, 1940.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of the Family of the late Frederick A. Dwight of Rumson, New Jersey
Accession Year
1940
Object Number
1940.88
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
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Publication History

  • Henry A. La Farge, Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of John La Farge, Unpublished (n.d.), card 916
  • "La Farge Art Studies An Interesting Exhibit", Boston Daily Advertiser (Boston, MA, March 20, 1909), p. 5
  • Frederick Stymetz Lamb, "John La Farge", Stained Glass (May 1913), no. 1, pp. i - vii
  • Josephine L. Allen, "Exhibition of the Work of John La Farge", The Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY, April 1936), vol. XXXI, no. 4, pp. 74-78
  • Joan C. Siegfried, American Allegorical Paintings, Drawings and Prints, exh. cat., Skidmore College (Saratoga Springs, NY, 1968), no. 13, p. 21, reproduced as fig. 8
  • Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr., American Master Drawings and Watercolors: A History of Works on Paper from Colonial Times to the Present, Harper & Row (New York, NY, 1976), p. 210, fig. 171
  • Helen Barbara Weinberg, "The Decorative Work of John La Farge" (Thesis, Columbia University, 1977), Garland Press, pp. 416, 418; reproduced fig. 326
  • Henry A. La Farge, "John La Farge's Work in the Vanderbilt Houses", The American Art Journal (Autumn 1984), vol. XVI, fig. 38, pp. 54 - 56
  • Martha Banta, Imaging American Women: Idea and Ideals in Cultural History, Columbia University Press (New York, NY, 1987), p. 397, fig. 19.20
  • Henry B. Adams et al., John La Farge: Essays, exh. cat., Abbeville Press (New York, NY, 1987), plate 161, pp. 219 - 220, checklist, no. 93
  • D. Dodge Thompson, "John La Farge's Masterpieces in Stained Glass", The Magazine Antiques (March 1989), vol. CXXXV, pp. 708 - 717, reproduced p. 711
  • James L. Yarnall, John La Farge: Watercolors and Drawings, exh. cat., Hudson River Museum (Yonkers, NY, 1990), no. 52, fig. 23, p. 37
  • Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr., Virginia Anderson, and Kimberly Orcutt, ed., American Paintings at Harvard, Volume Two, Paintings, Drawings, Pastels and Stained Glass by Artists Born 1826-1856, Harvard Art Museums and Yale University Press (U.S.) (Cambridge, MA and New Haven, CT, 2008), under cat. no. 158
  • Elisabeth Hodermarsky, John La Farge's Second Paradise: Voyages in the South Seas, 1890-1891, exh. cat., Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, 2010), pp. 163-164, fig. 121
  • Dreaming in Glass: Masterworks by Tiffany and La Farge, auct. cat., Sotheby's, New York (New York, December 12, 2018), p. 65, repr. p. 64

Exhibition History

  • Catalogue of Works by John La Farge, Montross Gallery, New York, 01/24/1901 - 02/23/1901; Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, 03/27/1901 - 04/10/1901
  • Paintings and Drawings by John La Farge, Seattle Fine Arts Association, Seattle, 01/04/1909 - 01/16/1909
  • Exhibition of Glass, Oil and Water Color Paintings and Sketches by John La Farge, Knoedler & Co. Inc., New York, 02/15/1909 - 02/28/1909
  • Catalogue of Oil and Water Color Paintings and Sketches by John La Farge, Doll and Richards Gallery, Boston, 03/18/1909 - 04/01/1909
  • John La Farge, Graham Gallery, New York, 05/04/1966 - 06/10/1966
  • American Allegorical Paintings, Drawings, and Prints, Hathorn Gallery, Saratoga Springs, 04/18/1968 - 05/05/1968
  • American Master Drawings and Watercolors: A History of Works on Paper from Colonial Times to the Present, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, 09/01/1976 - 10/26/1976; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 11/23/1976 - 01/23/1977; California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, 02/20/1977 - 04/17/1977
  • John La Farge, National Museum of American Art, Washington, 07/10/1987 - 10/12/1987; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, 11/07/1987 - 01/03/1988; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, 02/24/1988 - 04/24/1988
  • John La Farge: Watercolors and Drawings, Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, 10/28/1990 - 01/06/1991; Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, Utica, 02/09/1991 - 04/21/1991

Related Works

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu