Arthur Wesley Dow influenced Georgia O'Keeffe through ideas about composition and personal expression.
Dow was an American artist, educator, and influential teacher whose approach emphasized the arrangement of line, color, and tone rather than the direct copying of nature. O'Keeffe encountered his ideas through Alon Bement, who taught at the University of Virginia and had studied with Dow.
In 1915, O'Keeffe created a series of abstract charcoal drawings while teaching in South Carolina. She sent some of these drawings to her friend Anita Pollitzer, who showed them to Alfred Stieglitz. Stieglitz exhibited them in New York in 1916.
Dow's influence helped O'Keeffe develop a more personal visual language, but he did not simply teach her a recognizable style. Robert Henri and John Singer Sargent were also important American art figures, yet neither is the specific teacher associated with this compositional influence.