Dune with Shell

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.