Harbor and Boats

Harbor and Boats derives from a group of small 1922 oils depicting abstracted views of Gloucester, Massachusetts. Several of these compositions, including the present example, were revisited by the artist in 1951, which was not an uncommon practice for the period. According to Ani Boyajian and Mark Rutkowski, "Davis had begun drawing the compositions of his early canvases onto large-scale canvases in April 1951, elaborating upon those compositions with the addition of various new elements and configurations. Here, rather, the artist added the new elements and reworked the composition directly on the surface of his original 1922 canvas." (Stuart Davis: A Catalogue Raisonné, vol. III, New Haven, Connecticut, 2007, p. 122)