Quaker Ridge

Dewey said of Quaker Ridge: “I consider this painting a representative work and among my best . . . it seems to me to have a spirit of evening and a voice of its own. Words are not in my line and quite unnecessary in this case.” The artist’s belief that words are superfluous for understanding reflects one of the central precepts of Tonalist aesthetics, that anecdotal and literary subjects should be replaced by harmonious arrangements of colors and forms which would directly evoke emotional states or moods.