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Treasures

Rose Tree

Adorned by a mass of blush-colored petals and graceful limbs, the elegant, solitary Rose Tree dances against the sky, its motions mirroring the sway of a nearby garden path. One of several embroidered wall hangings by the Deerfield Society of Blue and White Needlework featuring a single centralized tree in a composition bisected by its horizon line, the lyrical Rose Tree illustrates a modernist facet of the Society's work, and is reminiscent of the compositions of Arthur Wesley Dow. A Massachusetts artist, teacher and author of the oft-reprinted Composition: A Series of Exercises in Art Structure for the use of Students and Teachers (first published in 1899), Dow championed the design principles he saw in Japanese prints, and encouraged artists to create harmonious compositions through careful arrangement of "line, mass and color,"¹ rather than by imitating nature.

1. Arthur Wesley Dow, Composition: A Series of Exercises in Art Structure for the use of Students and Teachers (New York: Doubleday), 1899, reprinted 1913, 4.

Date:

c. 1905

Creator:

Deerfield Society of Blue & White Needlework

Dimensions:

H. 45.5" x W. 21.5"