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Sea and Rocks

Adolf Arthur Dehn

American Art

Although best known as a lithographer of caricatured figure subjects, Adolf Dehn also worked with other media and subjects, including landscape watercolors. Dehn’s primary work in a black-and-white print medium may have led him to emphasize strong contrasts of light and dark, enhanced here by areas of drawing with a soft pencil or chalk. Although his talent for expressive form is also visible, this work is most impressive for Dehn’s dynamic control of the dark washes that broadly but forcefully define the jutting rock cliffs.
MEDIUM Watercolor and black media (chalk, soft pencil, or conté) on cream, medium thick, medium textured wove paper (BFK Rives)
DATES 1938
DIMENSIONS Sheet: 15 1/8 x 22 3/8 in. (38.4 x 56.8 cm) Frame: 23 15/16 x 29 7/8 x 1 1/2 in. (60.8 x 75.9 x 3.8 cm)  (show scale)
MARKINGS Countermark along lower right edge, to the right of artist's signature: "BFK"
SIGNATURE Signed lower right: "Adolf Dehn '38"
COLLECTIONS American Art
ACCESSION NUMBER 39.103
CREDIT LINE Dick S. Ramsay Fund
MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
CAPTION Adolf Arthur Dehn (American, 1895-1968). Sea and Rocks, 1938. Watercolor and black media (chalk, soft pencil, or conté) on cream, medium thick, medium textured wove paper (BFK Rives), Sheet: 15 1/8 x 22 3/8 in. (38.4 x 56.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Dick S. Ramsay Fund, 39.103. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 39.103_SL1.jpg)
IMAGE overall, 39.103_SL1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
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RIGHTS STATEMENT © Estate of Adolf Arthur Dehn
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