Arthur Dove - Dove and Helen Torr

Dove and Helen Torr

He spent a seven-year period on a houseboat called Mona with Helen Torr, known as "Reds" for the fiery color of her hair. Torr was also a painter. Although the psychological consequences benefited Dove’s art, his life with Torr was difficult. Florence Dove never cared about Dove's passion for art, and was more socially inclined. After 25 years of marriage, Dove left Florence. Florence would not grant him a divorce and flatly refused to let him see his son. When he departed, he left behind everything except his copies of Camera Work and Stieglitz’s letters. When Dove’s wife Florence died unexpectedly, he paid $250.00 for the funeral expenses and sent flowers, but did not go to the funeral in Geneva. Although distressed about her death, he was now able to see his son and marry Torr. For the first time in eight years, Dove met with his then nineteen-year-old son, Bill, who was also an artist. The two established a friendship and later in life his son became a help to Dove with creating a technique for silvering frames. Dove and Torr were not able to wed immediately as Torr had not divorced her first husband. Dove and Torr did eventually marry on April 1932 in the New York City Hall with a brief service and using a ten-cent store ring. Dove identified himself as a "frame maker" on his marriage registry. The 1933 Gallery 291 exhibition was the only time Stieglitz allowed Torr and Dove to exhibit together. "Seven Americans" brought Dove back into the coverage of major newspapers and art magazines, as well as back into the public eye. Dove's work had an impact on later abstract landscape painters, such as Hatton and O'Keeffe, in terms of having an "unbridled love of pure, hot color."