Mountains and Castelli

Arthur B. Davies's "Mountains and Castelli" (1920/28) is a watercolor and gouache with graphite on tan wove paper prepared with a brown wash. The title suggests an Italian scene—Castelli is a town in the Abruzzo region known for its ceramics. Davies traveled extensively in Europe after the Armory Show, and his later watercolors document the landscapes he encountered with a new naturalism that modifies his earlier dreamlike symbolism. The prepared brown wash ground provides a unifying warmth, against which the watercolor and gouache build the forms of mountains, castles, and the Italian landscape. The touches of graphite add linear definition. The composition is more structured and observant than Davies's earlier visionary works, showing an artist who, late in his career, was still evolving and engaging with the direct experience of landscape.

Davies's European watercolors represent a significant late development in his art, showing a shift from symbolist vision to a more direct engagement with the landscape tradition.

This watercolor captures the Italian landscape with a new naturalism, showing Davies's continued evolution as an artist even in his later years.