George Walter Dawson (1870-1938)
- GEORGE WALTER DAWSON (1870-1938)
- White Water Lily, 1912
- Watercolor on paper
- 10 x 10 in
- Signed and dedicated by the artist in pencil lower right: “George Walter Dawson to Amy & Thornton Oakley”
This watercolor White Water Lily is typical of Dawson's garden paintings, for which he was best known. Art and Progress believed that Dawson,
... almost more than any other painter, translated the poignant charm of the garden, with its blossoming plants and shrubs, its light and shade, its indescribably loveliness. ...The flowers he paints, whether in mass or singly, seem to live. One can fancy them stirred by a breath of wind, fragrant, perishable.
Like many of his works, White Water Lily shows the influence of Japanese woodblock prints in its flattened washes of color, typical of the Japonisme style around the turn of the century. This watercolor is dedicated to the artists and book illustrators Thornton and Amy Oakley. Dawson most likely knew Thornton Oakley from the University of Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia Water Color Club.
