Dune with Shell

1935

Virginia Berresford (American, 1902–1995)

In Dune with Shell, Virginia Berresford rendered a lone shell in the sandy foreground set against an expansive blue sky and radiant sun, imbuing the work with a sense of warmth and wonder. She specialized in these undulating yet precise scenes where land meets water, calling them her “dunescapes.”

Studying in Paris in the 1920s, the artist explored abstracted, simplified forms in both urban and coastal compositions. Berresford later split her time between New York City, Martha’s Vineyard, and Key West, exhibiting widely and garnering considerable acclaim for her bold, poetic visions of nature.

Status: On View, Gallery 273
Department: Arts of the Americas

Artist: Virginia Berresford
Title: Dune with Shell
Place: Martha's Vineyard (Object made in:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1935
Medium: Oil on canvas
Inscriptions: Signed and dated recto, bottom-left, on sand dune, in gray paint: "V. Berresford / '35".
Dimensions: 54 × 91.8 cm (21 1/4 × 36 1/8 in.)
Credit Line: Roger and J. Peter McCormick Endowment Fund
Reference Number: 2025.109

Possibly Bonestell Galleries, Virginia Berresford Retrospective, exh. cat. (Bonestall Galleries, 1941), n.p., cat. 22.
Virginia Berresford, Virginia’s Journal: An Autobiography of an Artist (The Glen Publishing Company, 1989), pl. after 50 (photograph of artist with the painting).

Possibly New York, Bonestell Galleries, Virginia Berresford Retrospective, Nov 10–22, 1941, cat. 22.

With David Barnett Gallery, Milwaukee. Sold, Treadway Toomey Galleries, Cincinnati, Sept. 10, 2000, lot 598 (as Dunes and Shell), to private collection. Sold, Heritage Auctions, Dallas, June 11, 2009, lot 77227, to private collection. Sold, Doyle, New York, Nov. 13, 2012, lot 391 (as Sand Dunes), to private collection. Granary Gallery, Martha’s Vineyard, MA, 2021 [this and the following according to email from Schoelkopf Gallery, Dec. 11, 2024; copy in curatorial object file]; sold to Menconi and Schoelkopf Fine Art, New York, 2022; sold to private collection, Bedford, NY, 2022; sold to Schoelkopf Gallery, New York, Dec. 2024; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2025.

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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