Back Beach, Truro
Artist
Edwin Dickinson
(American, 1891 - 1978)
CultureAmerican
Date1931
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsOverall: 25 1/8 x 30 1/4 in. (63.8 x 76.8 cm)
Overall, Frame: 37 1/2 x 42 1/2 in. (95.3 x 108 cm)
Overall, Frame: 37 1/2 x 42 1/2 in. (95.3 x 108 cm)
InscribedSigned: "E.W. Dickinson"
Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.
Object number71.2731
On View
Not on viewLabel TextEdwin Dickinson American, 1891–1978 Back Beach, Truro, 1931 Oil on canvas Search the gray haze of this beachscape for the contours of the empty Cape Cod dunes. Here Edwin Dickinson transforms an art school practice exercise called a premier coup (“first strike”) into a large and compelling work. Such pictures were painted quickly, probably within the span of a few hours, and often with crude tools like a palette knife or the artist’s fingers. Notice the signature scratched into the painting along the right edge. Like Dickinson, William Trost Richards (whose work is on view to the right) wandered the beaches of New England for hours to find his ideal subjects. Richards, however, always emphasized precision, variety, and detail. Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.2731 Exhibition History42nd Annual Exhibition of the Nebraska Art Association (no date available). "Provincetown, Past and Present," Chrysler Art Museum of Provincetown, Mass., 1958. "Three Hundred Years of American Art in the Chrysler Museum," Chrysler Museum at Norfolk, Va., March 1 - July 4, 1976. Published ReferencesDennis R. Anderson, _Three Hundred Years of American Art in the Chrysler Museum_, exh. cat., Norfolk, Va., 1975, 190.
