ARTHUR DOVE (1880–1946)
Yours Truly, 1927
Oil on canvas, 16 1/2 x 21 1/2 in.
Dated and inscribed with title (on the reverse, prior to lining)
RECORDED: Ann Lee Morgan, “Toward the Definition of Early Modernism in America: A Study of Arthur Dove” (Ph.D. dissertation, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, 1973: U. M. I. reprint, 1983), “Catalogue,” p. 257 no. 27.19 // Ann Lee Morgan, Arthur Dove: Life and Work, with a Catalogue Raisonné (Newark, Delaware: University of Delaware Press, 1984), pp. 52, 160 no. 27.17, 161 illus.
EXHIBITED: The Intimate Gallery, New York, 1927–28, Arthur G. Dove Paintings, no. 14 // Hirschl and Adler Galleries, New York, 1978, The Eye of Stieglitz, p. 24 no. 19 illus. // The Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, Alabama, March 1979 // John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, California, 1980, American Paintings and Drawings // John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, California, 1982, Three Decades: American Paintings of the 20s, 30s and 40s
EX COLL: [An American Place, New York]; [The Downtown Gallery, New York]; [Terry Dintenfass Gallery, New York]; to [Hirschl and Adler Galleries, New York, 1978]; to [Adelson Gallery, New York, 1979]; [Coe Kerr Gallery, New York, by 1982]; to private collection, until the present
Yours Truly is a work of 1927, a fertile year for Dove, capped by a solo exhibit at Stieglitz’s “The Intimate Gallery,” which included this picture. From 1924 through 1930, Dove produced a notable series of collages, interspersed with drawings, pastels, and oil paintings on a variety of supports. In 1927, the same year that Dove painted Yours Truly, he found inspiration in American popular music, often referring in his titles to works by George Gershwin and Irving Berlin. Yours Truly was the title of a Broadway musical that opened at the Shubert Theater on January 25, 1927. Gene Buck, the producer, had collaborated with Raymond Hubbell, the composer, on the Ziegfield Follies shows of 1923, 1924, and 1925. The production, which contained the title song, “Yours Truly,” ran for 127 performances, closing on May 14, 1927. Given the context of Dove paintings in 1927 inspired by popular music, there is little doubt that the title of Dove’s painting refers to this Broadway musical and would have been familiar to a contemporary audience.