Stormy Seas

Arthur B. Davies's "Stormy Seas" is a charcoal drawing with stumping, heightened with white gouache, on gray laid paper with blue fibers. The subject is a dramatic seascape—stormy seas—a departure from Davies's more typical calm, idyllic landscapes. The charcoal medium is handled with great expressiveness: the dark, rubbed areas suggest storm clouds and turbulent water, while the white gouache highlights pick out the crests of waves and flashes of light breaking through the darkness. The gray paper with blue fibers provides a cool, atmospheric ground. This drawing shows Davies's ability to handle dramatic, violent subjects with the same sensitivity he brought to his more lyrical works. The storm at sea is a traditional subject in Western art, from Rembrandt to Turner, and Davies's treatment places him within this grand tradition while adding his characteristic note of refined sensibility.

Davies's charcoal seascapes demonstrate the range of his artistic vision, showing that the poet of idyllic landscapes could also capture the sublime power of nature in its most dramatic moods.

This dramatic charcoal drawing shows Davies engaging with the Romantic tradition of the sublime, the stormy sea rendered with an expressive power unusual in his typically gentle oeuvre.