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From the exhibition

Levitation in Dream No. 2

Frederick J. Waugh, born Bordentown, NJ 1861-died Provincetown, MA 1940 · 1921

Levitation in Dream No. 2
This sketch depicts a figure suspended in mid-air above a colonial street scene, rendered in pencil with careful architectural detail. The composition combines surrealist imagery—the floating, elongated human form—with precise perspective studies of period buildings and a wide-brimmed hat that hovers as an independent element. The artist's notation suggests this was part of a series exploring dream states and impossible physics through illustration. The work exemplifies early twentieth-century modernist experimentation with perspective and the figure, moving beyond strict realism toward symbolic or fantastical subject matter. The drawing's technical foundation in architectural and anatomical study grounds its imaginative premise.

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