Brickyard Shed (1934), which depicts a section of the old brickworks on the Dove family property, bears no trace of the hardships Dove faced in Geneva. Dove treats the subject of the work with painterly exuberance, rendering the modest structure with broad and flowing bands of brown, white, and yellow paint and adorning the building’s right side with a pattern of gem-like green-blue shapes. The canvas barely contains the boisterous trees that burst into view from behind the shed, their limbs laden with a charming mix of abstract and naturalistic forms. A series of circles dances in the sky above the shed, their quirky twists mirrored in the bean-shaped sun and the plump, disc-shaped forms encircling the lowest tree branch. Concentric bands of white and yellow grey radiate towards the canvas’s upper edge, their animated spread amplifying the dynamism of the scene. A bright yellow flower provides a burst of enlivening color at upper right, and a brown shape adjacent to the shed appears loosely animal-like, complete with a large round eye, adding a touch of whimsy to the scene.

—Rachael Z. DeLue, excerpt from “Arthur Dove: Yes, I Could Paint a Cyclone”