DICKENSON'S SNOW
by Joan K. Yanni
Edwin W. Dickinson (1891-1978) is an artist's artist, an exacting and innovative painter who combined a mastery of form with a unique sense of design.
MAG's Snow on Quai is an example of his deceptively spare, masterful technique. The brush strokes in the small, quiet painting are few, but each is essential, each exactly right. (A quai or quay, pronounced kee, is a landing place constructed along the edge of a body of water.)
A letter from Dickinson's daughter Helen to the Gallery recounts that the family spent the winter of 1937-38 in Sanary-sur-mer, in the south of France. While they were there, the first snow in ten years fell on the town. So unusual was it that "men in streets threw snowballs and children in school were not allowed to go out and enjoy it." The snow had melted by the end of the day, but not before Dickinson had painted it from inside a balcony window of the Hotel Beauport. A glance through the MAG tour entrance near where the painting hangs now will help explain the work, especially in winter. Both the tour doors and the window in the painting frame the scene outside.
Edwin Dickinson was born in Seneca Falls, NY, the youngest of four children. His father, a Presbyterian minister, moved to Buffalo when Edwin was six, and the boy grew up there and at the family's country home at Sheldrake on Lake Cayuga—a place that he often pictured in his work. He was educated in local public schools and drew constantly.
His goal after leaving high school was to enter the US Naval Academy, but after flunking the entrance exam he turned to art. He studied at Pratt Institute, then at the Art Students League under William Merritt Chase. In the summer of 1912 he went to Provincetown to study with Charles W. Hawthorne, with whom he stayed for more than three years. His paintings during these years were varied, sometimes simple shore scenes, sometimes very large, exotic images suggested by stories he heard from the Portuguese fisherman who visited Cape Cod.
In his spare time Dickinson learned Morse telegraphy, and during World War I he served as a ship's radio operator in the Navy. After discharge in 1919 he studied art independently in Paris and Spain. El Greco's works made a lasting impression on him.
Returning to America in 1920, he again settled in Provincetown where his uniquely independent art evolved. In his works he painted a dislocated reality. Still life subjects were placed in unexpected positions or unusual lines of vision; he often took everyday objects—a boat, bench or rock—and pictured them alone, abstracting their essence. He captured nuances of light and color, taking sensuous pleasure in handling pigment.
Windows, as in Snow on Quai, were a favorite subject, with their abstract reflections and the contrast between the regular form of the frame and the irregular forms outside. He was also skilled at portraits, all marked by an intimate sense of character and feeling for the individual.
Dickinson kept firm ties to Buffalo, and his first work to enter a museum, An Anniversary, was given to the Albright Art Gallery (now Albright-Knox) by friends in 1927. One of his large paintings (72"x 60"), it presents a festive but odd gathering of people: an old fisherman, girls and artists crowd the picture, with a collection of still life at their feet—all painted with complete realism. His first one-man show was at the Albright-Knox that same year. Another large work, The Fossil Hunters, an enigmatic picture which included masterful foreshortening of figures, won the Second Altman Prize at the National Academy of Design in 1929.
In 1928 Dickinson married Frances Foley, an art student. Their life was not easy, since living on Cape Cod kept them out of the art scene except in summer, and he was not yet invited to show in large exhibitions. He did some teaching, and in 1933/34 was employed on the Public Works of Art Project, for which he produced The Stranded Brig, a large powerful work capturing the terrors of the sea.
In 1944 his family—there were now two children—moved to New York, spending summers in Wellfleet on Cape Cod. He began to teach regularly, first at the Art Students League and Cooper Union, later at the Buffalo Academy of the Fine arts, the Brooklyn Museum art school, Cornell, and other institutions. In the late 40s and mid-50s recognition began to come, and he was elected an Associate in the National Academy in 1948. Critical attention increased, particularly through articles by Elaine de Kooning, a friend and admirer. He was included in MOMA's Fifteen Americans exhibit in 1952 and his pictures were purchased by major museums. He received an honorary degree of Doctor of Fine Arts from Pratt Institute in 1961.
His reputation is still growing and his art is being "rediscovered" today.
See Grant Holcomb (2001) Voices in the Gallery: Writers on Art.P.144
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