MBFA

This painting, catalogued in the Dorothy Dehner retrospective at the Hyde Collection, Glens Falls and the Phillips Collection, Washington, DC as "Still Life with Shell, Virgin Island Series" dates from 1931, when Dehner and her husband David Smith moved to St. Thomas, USVI. According to Dehner, it was during this sojourn that Smith made his first sculpture. He is remembered today as one of the premiere 3-D artists of the 20th century. Dehner spent her time drawing and painting; it was not until her separation and subsequent divorce from Smith in 1950-1952, that she became more active professionally, studying printmaking with Stanley Hayter and gaining recognition as a sculptor as well.