Painted in the years immediately following the 1913 Armory Show, The Dawning marks Davies's turn away from his earlier lyrical, figurative style toward a Cubist-influenced idiom of geometric, decorative forms. Beginning in 1914, Davies adapted this new aesthetic to large-scale canvases like this one, where the essentially decorative character of his version of modernism becomes apparent. Rendered on a monumental, nearly square canvas that suggests a mural or fresco, the work fuses his earlier dreamlike, allegorical sensibility with a newfound structural, fragmented geometry absorbed from European modernism. A contemporary writer in 1917 observed that Davies had allied his new grasp of art's geometric side with the older, visionary knowledge of his imaginative mind, calling the resulting composition a disturbing and compelling "fresco" that grew more compelling with repeated viewing and argued it belonged in a public museum. Collector Lillie P. Bliss evidently agreed, and her bequest brought the painting to the Brooklyn Museum, where it remains today (though currently not on view)
The Dawning by Arthur B. Davies represents a transition from traditional, dreamlike figurative art to modernist experimentation. Inspired by European Cubism, Davies uses geometric, fragmented, and decorative forms rather than presenting figures and space realistically. The monumental, almost square canvas gives the painting the appearance of a mural or fresco, making it feel grand and public. At the same time, the work retains Davies’s earlier interest in imagination, dreams, and allegory. The combination of his visionary style with Cubist geometry creates an atmosphere that is mysterious and slightly unsettling. The title The Dawning can also suggest the beginning of a new artistic period, reflecting the shift toward modernism in early twentieth-century American art. Overall, the painting shows how Davies combined European modernist ideas with his own imaginative style to create a distinctive and symbolic composition.
