A Closer Look at Arthur Wesley Dow’s Cosmic Cities

Let’s take a closer look at Arthur Wesley Dow’s Cosmic Cities. (What a name, hey!) Dow was an American artist and teacher, though it seems he is more known for his teaching. One of his students was Jane Peterson, who I wrote about last month. He also taught Georgia O’Keeffe. But enough about his students. This is one of those paintings that immediately caught my attention. It’s an interesting take on the Grand Canyon in an interesting style. It reminds me of Edgar Payne’s and Erin Hanson’s work.

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A Note on Photos

I haven’t had the privilege of seeing this painting in person. I must rely on photos. While doing my research, I came across several distinctly different photos of the painting. They varied dramatically in lightness, color saturation, and contrast. Some show the painting in a more favorable light than others. Look at the collage below to see what I mean.

This raises an issue. Which photo best represents the original? I typically judge a photo by the credibility and reliability of its source. Museums tend to be the most credible and reliable. Personal photos and small publications, not so much. I am also wary of photos that are at the extremes—too warm, cool, light, dark, colorful, or dull.

I’m noting this for three reasons:

1. Take care when photographing your work. Make it as faithful to the original as possible. The photo is often all people have to go by, so it’s important to get it right.
2. Be wary of what you see on the internet. Some sources are more reliable than others.
3. Photos are no substitute for seeing these great paintings in person.

Dancing Elements

The painting features a beautiful dance between the different colors, shapes, and patterns. The Grand Canyon is really the perfect vehicle to showcase these elements, with its unique combination of terrain, contours, light, space, and atmosphere. The way light hits the Canyon creates these jagged light and dark shapes and patterns. The atmosphere baths everything in a cool light, which gets stronger in the distance. The terrain varies in color and texture. And then there’s the sheer scale of it all. All this makes for a fascinating subject with many faces and angles to convey. I often say that any subject can be interesting if you pay close enough attention. But I doubt you need to try that hard with the Canyon. Some subjects are just asking to be painted. (I haven’t been there myself, but my brother tells me it’s an unbelievable sight and that photos do not do the sheer scale of it justice.)

Color Temperature

There’s an interesting play between warm and cool colors. In the foreground, the shadows are quite warm. Those dark oranges that convey earth and rock are the warmest colors, even warmer than the colors in light.

But in the middle ground and background, there’s a clearer theme of warm lights against cool shadows. The lights take on a pale orange appearance, while blue dominates the shadows due to atmospheric perspective and the soft illumination of the blue sky. It’s such a beautiful combination—pale oranges against a sea of blues. They appear to shimmer. It would be quite a sight in person, especially given the size of this painting (60 x 78 inches). I remember experimenting with this color combination in one of my early impressionist paintings: Devil’s Kitchen. There may be no beautiful or ugly colors in isolation, but there certainly can be beautiful color combinations and relationships.

An important observation about Dow’s painting is that there are really two light sources at play: direct sunlight and ambient light from the blue sky. Direct sunlight is what defines the major light and dark shapes. The ambient blue light plays more of a secondary role. It gives areas that are exposed to the sky but shielded from direct sunlight a soft, blue glow. These areas will appear as shadows, but only in relation to areas hit by direct sunlight. Most people assume there’s only one light source in landscape painting. But it’s often more complicated than that.

This is conveyed through the different planes of the Canyon. The more horizontal or flatter planes are cooler than the more vertical planes. That’s because the flatter planes are being hit with more of the soft blue light from the sky.

The cast shadows play an important role. Refer to the close-up below. The cast shadows are those dark and flat blue shapes. Notice how they span across different areas of the subject and link them together. This is a subtle but effective way to create cohesion throughout a painting.

Immersive Composition

Dow was inspired to visit the Canyon after seeing Thomas Moran’s interpretation of the Grand Canyon (shown below). Moran emphasized the depth and openness of the landscape, whereas Dow took a more immersive approach.

In Cosmic Cities, there’s no good footing and the sky is cropped out as we look slightly downwards into the mountainous landscape. There’s no dominant focal point. The painting as a whole is in focus, with a bit more attention given to the foreground and middle ground. The lack of sky limits the sense of depth and space, yet it still appears grand. The lack of footing and a focal point gives it a disorienting and dizzying feel. Patricia Junker at the Seattle Art Museum describes it well:

“He said the immersive experience of the Grand Canyon made him think differently about the structures of pictures—he loved that disorienting quality, the feeling that we have no footing, that we might tumble into the scene. He also said he saw nature’s innate architecture. In Cosmic Cities, this strange architecture looks like it could have come from some ancient builders, but it is the product of nature itself.”

Junker, P. (26 April 2017). Seeing Nature through The Eyes of Curators: The Grand Canyon. Seattle Art Museum.

A good lesson here is that your composition choices can dramatically influence how the subject is perceived. In both Moran’s and Dow’s paintings, the subject is the same, but the way it’s conveyed and the characteristics that are highlighted vary significantly.

Atmospheric Perspective

Despite the limited depth, there’s still a strong sense of atmospheric perspective. Notice how the colors gradually get cooler and weaker.

There are several areas where the colors jump (they get noticeably cooler and weaker). These jumps in color reflect jumps in space. The more significant the jump in color, the more significant the jump in space. This is most evident as you go from the foreground to the middle ground. This tells us there’s a whole lot of land below that we cannot see.

Light and Shadow (Value)

Here’s a grayscale of the painting so we can clearly see all the different values:

This reveals a few things:

• It’s a fairly dark painting, with most of the colors around the low to middle range of the value scale;
• Dow simplified the painting in terms of value. I can spot four dominant values: dark gray, medium-dark gray, medium-light gray, and light gray.
• The foreground has the most contrast, with the darkest darks and lightest lights. The middle ground and background have a more compressed value range. This reiterates the sense of atmospheric perspective.

The grayscale also shows just how much work color is doing. The painting is rather bland without it. The painting also has a fairly weak value structure. The light and dark shapes are scattered all over the place. You can see what I mean in the two-value notan I created below using Photoshop.

Close-Ups

Here are some close-ups of the painting to give you a clearer look at the brushwork and detail. Notice the blocky strokes and distinct colors woven together in a patchwork. There’s hardly any blending.

Similar Paintings

Key Takeaways

• A painting’s name can be a key feature if you choose. Cosmic Cities—what a name!
• Photos are no substitute for seeing great paintings in person.
• There may be no beautiful or ugly colors in isolation, but there certainly can be beautiful color combinations and relationships, like orange against blue.
• Most people assume there’s only one light source in landscape painting. But it’s often more complicated than that. In Dow’s painting, there’s direct sunlight and ambient light from the blue sky.
• Your composition decisions can define how the subject is conveyed. In this case, the lack of sky and footing gives it an immersive and disorientating feel.
• You don’t always need a dominant focal point. The painting as a whole could be in focus.
• Jumps in color can be used to suggest jumps in space.
• Don’t try to paint every change in value (lightness). Simplify!

Feel free to share your thoughts about the painting in the comment section below. If you want to learn more, you should check out my Painting Academy course. I’ll walk you through the time-tested fundamentals of painting. It’s perfect for absolute beginner to intermediate painters.

Happy painting!

Dan Scott

Draw Paint Academy