Historic New England
FRONT COVER:
Braddock Mead, aka John Green (c. 1688-1757) [compiler], Thomas Jefferys (c. 1710-1771) [publisher]
A Map of the most Inhabited part of New England, containing the Provinces of Massachusetts Bay and New Hampshire,
with the Colonies of Connecticut and Rhode Island, Divided into Counties and Townships:
The whole composed from Actual Surveys and its Situation adjusted by Astronomical Observations 1774
Hand-colored copper plate engraving 41½ x 39½ inches
NH:William Trost Richards (1833-1905) Whaleback Lighthouse Off Portsmouth, New Hampshire [detail] circa 1872
MA: John Singleton Copley (1738-1815) Lady Temple (Elizabeth Bowdoin of Boston) circa 1767
CT: Frank Convers Mathewson (1862-1941) Noank Shipyard [detail] 1899
VT: James King Bonnar (1883-1961) Mount Equinox, Manchester, Vermont [detail] circa 1950
RI: John La Farge (1835-1910) Newport, Windmill, Near Easton’s Pond. Early Spring, Southeast Wind 1864
ME: Winslow Homer (1836-1910) Sea and Rocks at Prouts Neck, Maine [detail] 1895
“Historic New England”
An Exhibition and Sale of
Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings, Prints, Photographs, and Sculpture
Illustrating Four Centuries of the History, Culture, and Natural Beauty of the New England Region
To Benefit
~ America’s Oldest, Largest and Most Comprehensive Regional Heritage Organization ~
and in Celebration of the Centennial of its Founding
JULY 12 - NOVEMBER 14, 2010
William Vareika Fine Arts Ltd
The Newport Gallery of American Art
212 bellevue avenue • newport, rhode island 02840
WWW.VAREIKAFINEARTS.COM
401-849-6149
Historic New England: A Personal Reflection
“Our New England antiquities are fast disappearing...The situation requires aggressive action by a large and strong society,
which shall cover the whole field and act instantly wherever needed to lead in the
preservation of noteworthy buildings and historic sites.”
William Sumner Appleton (1874-1947)
Founder of Historic New England, 1910
“The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.”
William James (1842-1910)
My family roots are firmly planted in New England, my ancestors having arrived here during one of the great immigration waves of the
early 20th Century. I was born in South Boston and raised in the industrial city of Brockton, Massachusetts, where my paternal grandfather had come to find work in a shoe factory when he first arrived in America from Lithuania before returning to Europe to fight for the
US Army in World War I. My paternal grandmother worked on the campaigns of legendary Boston Democratic Mayor James Michael
Curley. My maternal grandmother, who settled in South Boston after emigrating from County Galway, Ireland, found employment as
a domestic in Boston. My wife Alison’s maternal ancestors arrived in New England on the Mayflower. Her grandfather was a successful
Harvard-educated attorney who waged an unsuccessful campaign for Massachusetts Governor on the Republican ticket. Alison’s father
came to New England from Oklahoma to attend Yale. My father was the first member of his family to graduate from college, attending
Northeastern University on the GI Bill in the evenings when I was a child. The stories of our children’s ancestors – among them some
of New England’s earliest European settlers and its struggling early 20th century immigrants – reveal two significant and very different
perspectives on the complex and rich history of the region.
Nearly all of my fondest early memories took place among the historic sites and landmarks of New England: skating on the Boston Common ice rink and riding the swan boats on the frog pond in the Boston Public Garden; visiting the attractions of the Freedom Trail, and
battlefields of Lexington and Concord; touring Old Ironsides in the Charlestown Navy Yard; summer trips to the White Mountains and
the Berkshires; fishing on Cape Cod; and reliving the region’s nostalgic past at Old Mystic, Plymouth, and Sturbridge.
Later, while a prelaw student at Boston College in the early 1970s, I worked as an intern in the Mayor’s Office in Brockton. One of my
projects was the publication of a guide to the city, which included a historical sketch. Researching and writing the guide showed me
that even my own familiar hometown, a tired, struggling New England industrial city, possessed a fascinating and unique history to be
acknowledged and preserved; this is true of every town and city in New England. This effort led to the establishment of the Brockton
Historical Commission and my appointment as one of its first commissioners.
The William Vareika Fine Arts gallery was born out of a preservation crusade in the 1970s involving an endangered John La Farge decorated church in Newport, Rhode Island. I abandoned law school plans to volunteer to direct a protracted legal battle to save the historic
landmark church and its La Farge murals and opalescent glass windows. I had discovered this important and eccentric artist in the one
art history course I took as part of my liberal arts education. This academic experience and the ensuing preservation and restoration
project altered my planned vocation in public service law as I developed a career as an art dealer and a passion for art and historic preservation. Among my preservation mentors during this period were the members of the tiny “faithful remnant” group with whom I worked
in the battle to save the La Farge church. Though most were elderly and retired, they scrimped and saved to support our cause, some
taking second mortgages on their homes in order to raise the necessary funds. One of our supporters was affectionately known around
town as “Waterworks Annie” for once having courageously used her body to block a bulldozer in an attempt to prevent the destruction
of the historic Newport Waterworks building. Unfortunately, even her bravery and dedication couldn’t prevent its eventual demolition.
In 1979, while a graduate student in the American Civilization program at Brown University, I served as the resident caretaker at a
Rhode Island property owned by the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (SPNEA), as Historic New England was
known at the time. Today, I am honored to serve as a Trustee of the organization and a member of its Public Outreach Committee.
Throughout the years of the fight to preserve the La Farge church and during my time at Brown, I was forced to support myself in creative ways. Along with working as the part-time custodian and art installer at the Newport Art Association (now Newport Art Museum),
where I later served for twenty years as a Trustee, I found that I possessed a talent for buying and selling antique artworks. This began
on a modest scale with my finding “sleepers” at yard sales, junk shops, and country auctions and mostly turning them over for a profit
to dealers and a small number of private collectors. Over time, my experience, knowledge, and confidence grew as I developed from a
“picker” to a private art dealer operating out of my small 1860s Newport carriage house, which later also served as home to Alison and
our growing family. My first art purchases were a portrait of a boy with a parrot that came from the estate of the noted Newport and
Boston collector Maxim Karolik, and a small John La Farge watercolor of the sea, which I sold to the National Gallery of Art.
Alison and I opened our Bellevue Avenue, Newport gallery in 1987 with a dual mission: to provide a public space for the exhibition of important historical American art, with an emphasis on the art of Newport and the Narragansett Bay region, and to support charitable causes.
Over the past twenty-one years, we have staged a number of benefit exhibitions that have raised considerable funds and public consciousness
about a variety of charities relating to the arts, education, the environment, health care, animal welfare, social services, and historic preservation. I am pleased that millions of dollars have been contributed to non-profits as a result of these efforts and the success of our business.
During the centennial year of the founding of Historic New England, with thirty-six historic properties throughout New England, including
four in Rhode Island, and valuable educational programs that served over 10,000 Rhode Island school children last year, this organization
was a natural choice as the beneficiary of our 2010 summer exhibition. We are pleased to present the exhibition “Historic New England.”
This catalogue illustrates about one third of the approximately 150 works that are featured in the exhibition: oil paintings, watercolors,
drawings, prints, photographs, and sculptures representing all six New England states and spanning a 250 year period from 1730 to 1980.
The artworks selected depict a diversity of subject matter characteristic of New England over the past three centuries. The natural beauty
that has attracted artists, settlers, and visitors to the region is displayed in the exhibition’s landscapes, from the majestic mountains of
Vermont and New Hampshire to the rolling hills and farmlands of Western Massachusetts; in its seascapes, with proud ships and rocky
shores and green, foamy surf from Maine to Connecticut. The exhibition’s cityscapes and townscapes recall a time when Boston was the
“Hub of the Universe,” when Providence was a major national industrial center, when Gloucester and Newburyport were populated with
farmers and fishermen who made their living from the bounty of the land and sea. Portraits of the wealthy and prominent hang alongside
images of everyday New Englanders. The region’s extensive maritime heritage is detailed in works depicting fishing, whaling, shipbuilding,
sailing, and naval history.
We are honored to contribute all opening gala reception donations and a portion of the sales proceeds from this exhibition to enhance the
important mission of Historic New England. We encourage our friends and clients to learn more about the organization and to support
its cause.
Horace Porter, 19th century US Ambassador to France and Union Army General, once bemoaned his poor luck at being one of those
“upon whom Providence did not sufficiently smile to permit us to be born in New England.” Those of us fortunate enough to have been
born here or to have lived here long enough to call the region home should also feel extremely grateful that Historic New England remains
steadfast in its mission to “keep history alive and to help people develop a deeper understanding and enjoyment of New England life and
appreciation for its preservation.” May this noble work continue for the next hundred years and beyond.
Bill Vareika Newport, Rhode Island July 4, 2010
1. Castle Tucker
2. Nickels-Sortwell House
3. Marrett House
4. Sarah Orne Jewett House
5. Hamilton House
6. Sayward-Wheeler House
7. Rundlet-May House
8. Gov. John Langdon House
9. Jackson House
10. Gilman Garrison House
11. Barrett House
12. Rocky Hill Meeting House
13. Dole-Little House
14. Coffin House
15. Swett-Ilsley House
16. Spencer-Peirce-Little Farm
17. Beauport
18. Cogswell’s Grant
19. Gedney House
20. Phillips House
21. Boardman House
22. Cooper-Frost-Austin House
23. Gropius House
24. Codman Estate
25. Lyman Estate
26. Browne House
27. Otis House
28. Pierce House
29. Quincy House
30. Winslow Crocker House
31. Merwin House
32. Roseland Cottage
33. Clemence-Irons House
34. Arnold House
35. Casey Farm
36. Watson Farm
Properties
Map
About
Historic
New England
Defining the past. Shaping the future.
For the past one hundred years Historic New England has brought the rich history
of New England to life for everyone interested in exploring the authentic New
England experience from the seventeenth century to today. This year Historic New
England celebrates its centennial and launches a second century of protecting and
sharing the stories, places, and objects that define New Englanders. Historic New
England was founded in 1910 as the Society for the Preservation of New England
Antiquities (SPNEA). Renamed Historic New England in 2004, the organization
is celebrating and capturing history throughout 2010 with a variety of programs,
including: an exhibition entitled Drawing Toward Home: Designs for Domestic Architecture at the National Building Museum, Washington, DC, through August
15; America’s Kitchens in New York at the Long Island Museum of American
Art, History and Carriages, February 27-July 11; and a New England traveling
exhibition, The Preservation Movement Then and Now, May 13-September 30, at
Boott Cotton Mills Museum, Lowell, Massachusetts. Their ongoing 100 Years
100 Communities initiative is partnering with community groups to collect and
share important components of twentieth century history before they are lost
• Founded in 1910 by Bostonian William Sumner Appleton, the country’s first
professional preservationist
• Thirty-six historic homes and landscapes spanning four centuries and five
states: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island
• More than 110,000 objects: the largest assemblage of New England art and
artifacts in the U.S., much displayed in its original context
• Online catalogue of more than 70,000 collection objects
• Educational programs serving more than 36,000 students each year
• Publications, public exhibitions, lectures, tours
• Preservation services including the stewardship easement program and
Historic Homeowner membership and consultations
www.HistoricNewEngland.org
Connecticut
Elisha Taylor Baker (1827-1890)
The Schooner “Kate Church” of New London, Connecticut
Oil on canvas 24 x 31 inches
Marine artist Elisha Taylor Baker was born
in 1827 in New York City. His father, a
former ship owner and captain, was a fish
merchant. As a youth, Elisha spent some
time at sea, probably in the whaling trade.
He established a studio in downtown
Manhattan at Pearl and South Streets and
worked as a marine painter from about
1868. He painted portraits of all types of
ships around New England, from racing
yachts and whalers to steamships and
schooners, as in this depiction of the Kate
Church of New London, Connecticut. Fishing, whaling, shipbuilding, and merchant
shipping formed the backbone of the
maritime-based economy of 18th and 19th
century New England. Baker died in 1890
in Orange, Connecticut. His work is held
among the collections of: Mystic Seaport
Museum; the Mariners’ Museum; New
Bedford Whaling Museum; the Worcester
Art Museum; and the Wadsworth
Atheneum.
Connecticut
Henry Ward Ranger (1858-1916)
Coastal View, Cos Cob, Connecticut
Oil on panel 12 x 18 1/2 inches Signed with Ranger’s artist stamp, lower left
A leading tonalist landscape painter,
Henry Ward Ranger was born in
Geneseo, New York and grew up in
Syracuse. Ranger was largely self-taught
as an artist, but studied at the College
of Fine Arts at Syracuse University and
in Europe, where he was influenced by
the Barbizon painters and the Hague
School of Dutch painters. He summered
in Old Lyme and Noank and kept a
winter studio in New York City. His
discovery of beautiful and charming Old
Lyme led to the formation of the
important art colony there. Ranger first
worked in watercolor, but turned to oil
as his career progressed. He was most
interested in seasonal landscapes, forest
interiors, and marine subjects, such as
this view of the picturesque coastline at
Cos Cob, Connecticut. Cos Cob was
home to one of New England’s oldest
and pre-eminent art colonies, where
John Henry Twachtman, Theodore
Robinson, Childe Hassam, and
J. Alden Weir helped shape American
Impressionism.
Connecticut
Carlton Chapman (1860-1925)
“Enterprise” coming out of New London, July 15, 1897
Watercolor and pencil on paper 8 3/4 x 14 inches
Titled, lower left and center
Marine painter and illustrator Carlton
Theodore Chapman was born in New
London, Ohio. As a boy, Chapman
spent summers at his uncle’s shipyard
in Maine, and remained an avid sailor
all his life, frequenting the Narragansett
Bay on yachts such as the Crescent. He
studied in New York at the
National Academy of Design and the
Art Students League, and in Paris at the
Académie Julian. Chapman was
commissioned by the US Naval
Academy to paint depictions of naval
activities of the War of 1812. He was
sent by Harper’s Magazine Weekly to Cuba
to sketch the important engagements
of the Spanish-American War. He also
worked for Scribner’s Magazine illustrating
articles on famous US naval battles. In
the late 1880s the artist made sketching trips throughout France. The brig
Enterprise, shown here, patrolled the
northeast coast during and immediately
following the War of 1812, and once
sailed from New London, Connecticut
to Newport, Rhode Island with
President James Monroe as a passenger.
Connecticut
Frank Convers Mathewson (1862-1941)
Noank Shipyard 1899
Oil on canvas 16 x 20 inches Signed and dated, lower right
Landscape, marine, floral, and mural painter
Frank Convers Mathewson was born in
Barrington, Rhode Island. He studied in Paris
at the Académie Julian and at the National
School of Decorative Arts. He also studied
painting in Fiesole, Italy with Frank Vincent
DuMond. He worked in Providence with
Frederick Batcheller, and with Hugo Bruel
and Sydney Burleigh in the Fleur de Lys studio
building. In 1904 he again traveled abroad,
studying and painting in Cornwall, Paris,
Bruges, and Munich. Upon returning to
the United States, Mathewson established
a studio on 57th Street in New York, where
he remained for eleven years. Returning to
Providence, the artist took up occupancy in
Burleigh’s studio in the Fleur de Lys building.
Mathewson painted scenes throughout New
England, such as this view of the historic
shipyard at Noank, Connecticut, established
by the Palmer brothers in 1850. The “Palmer
yard,” the largest facility for building and
repair of wooden vessels in southern New
England, was a popular subject for marine
painters.
Connecticut
Will Howe Foote (1874-1965)
“Black Point” Waterford, Connecticut
Oil on board 12 x 16 inches Signed, lower rightInscribed with location on verso
Old Lyme Impressionist painter Will Howe
Foote was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago
and under Kenyon Cox and H. Siddons
Mowbray at the Art Students League in New
York City, where he became close friends
with fellow student Frederick Frieseke. Foote
also studied in Paris at the Académie Julian,
as well as with J. A. M. Whistler. He was one
of Connecticut’s Old Lyme Art Colony’s
earliest artists, first arriving to paint in the
summer of 1901 with his uncle, artist William Henry Howe. The Old Lyme Colony
was one of the earliest and most influential
of the many artist colonies that developed
throughout New England in the first decades
of the 20th Century. Foote taught at the Art
Students League and as assistant to Frank
Vincent DuMond at the Old Lyme Summer
School of Art. In 1909 Foote built a home on
the Lieutenant River in Old Lyme. The artist
spent winters painting in the warmer climates
of Bermuda, the Caribbean, Mexico, and
the Southwest. Foote enjoyed experimenting
with color and the effects of light in nature,
as in this shimmering view of Black Point,
Waterford, Connecticut.
Maine
Fitz Henry Lane (1804-1865)
Castine from Hospital Island 1855
Two-stone lithograph on paper 20 1/2 x 33 1/2 inches
F. H. Lane, del. Printed by L. H. Bradford & Co’s. Lith.
Published by Joseph L. Stevens, Jr.
One of America’s most renowned marine
artists, Nathaniel Rogers Lane was born in
Gloucester, Massachusetts. Lane petitioned to
change his name to Fitz Henry Lane in 1831.
He apprenticed himself to the Boston
lithographer William S. Pendleton, producing
naval architecture drafts, panoramas, and
topographical views of Boston and its harbor.
Lane soon established himself as a printmaker
as well as a painter. As a painter, he was largely
self-taught, but the Boston- based English
luminist marine artist Robert Salmon was a
strong influence on his work. Returning to
Gloucester in 1847, Lane designed and built
a house and studio on Duncan’s Point that
provided sweeping views of Gloucester harbor.
The Penobscot Bay area of Maine was another
important focus for Lane, as shown in this
view of Castine from Hospital Island, one of
the artist’s most rare and important prints.
He received many commissions from patrons
involved in Maine’s shipbuilding industry
and maritime trades. Lane was known for his
technical accuracy in depicting a vessel’s rigging, sail plan, and construction. It was said,
“His pictures delighted sailors by their perfect
truth.”
Maine
Master painter of marine and arctic scenes, William Bradford grew
up in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, near New Bedford. In 1852 Bradford
began painting and selling ship portraits. He studied with Albert Van
Beest and sketched with Albert Bierstadt. Bradford became known for
his views of coastal New England, Nova Scotia, and Labrador. Shown
here is a vessel out of Eastport, Maine, the easternmost port in the
United States. Bradford’s success enabled him to establish studios in
Boston and New York. The artist made several Arctic expeditions and
became famous for his depictions of them. He traveled to England in
1871, where he was welcomed by British Arctic explorers and received
many commissions for paintings, including one from Queen Victoria.
Bradford returned to the United States in 1874. He lived and worked for
a time in San Francisco and made painting trips throughout the west.
He returned to New York and established a new studio in the
Manhattan Studio Building. He maintained a summer studio in
Fairhaven until the end of his life.
William Bradford (1823-1892)
The “Mary Jane” of Eastport, Maine 1863
Oil on canvas 26 x 21 3/4 inches Signed and dated, lower right
Maine
Marine painter William
Frederick De Haas was born in
Rotterdam, Holland in 1830. He
was the older brother of Mauritz
Frederik Hendrick De Haas,
also a marine painter. William
studied at the Academy of Fine
Arts in Rotterdam, and with
landscape painter Nicolaas J.
Roosenboom at The Hague. He
left Holland in 1854 and
immigrated to the United States,
establishing a studio in the Tenth
Street Studio Building in New
York City. De Haas is best known
for his coastal scenes, many of
which are of Maine. He exhibited
frequently at the National Academy of Design and the Brooklyn
Art Association. De Haas died in
Fayal, the Azores, in 1880.
William Frederick De Haas (1830-1880)
Bald Head Cliff, York, Maine 1874
Oil on canvas 22 x 36 inches Signed and dated, lower left
Maine
Alfred T. Bricher (1837-1908)
Low Tide, Maine Oil on canvas 15 x 32 inches Signed, lower left
Alfred T. Bricher (1837-1908)
North Head
Pen and ink on paper 2 1/2 x 5 3/4 inches
Signed with monogram, lower right
Maine
“Talk of mysteries! —
Think of our life in nature, —
daily to be shown matter,
to come in contact with it, —
rocks, trees, wind on our cheeks!
the solid earth!
the actual world!”
Henry David Thoreau
The Maine Woods, 1848
Alfred T. Bricher (1837-1908)
Peaceful Cove with Mother and Child
Oil on canvas 18 x 39 inches Signed, lower right
Alfred T. Bricher (1837-1908)
Picnic on the Cove
Pen and ink on paper 3 x 6 1/2 inches
Signed with monogram, lower right
Maine
Winslow Homer (1836-1910)
Sea and Rocks at Prouts Neck, Maine 1895
Unique lithograph on paper 4 x 7 inches
Inscribed in the margins of the lithograph:
“Old proof/George Meyer’s Block/1895/Winslow Homer/
Original drawing on stone”
Winslow Homer is a major figure in
American painting. Homer was born
in Boston and grew up in Cambridge,
Massachusetts . He apprenticed with
lithographer J. H. Bufford in Boston
in 1855 and studied drawing at the
National Academy of Design. He
began his career as an illustrator for
Ballou’s Pictorial and Harper’s Weekly
in New York. In 1861 Homer began
painting in oils, having studied briefly
with Frederic Rondel. He traveled
to France in 1866-67, where he was
influenced by Impressionism. After
1873, Homer also began to paint in
watercolors and became a great master
of the medium. In 1882 the artist
settled in Prouts Neck, Maine, whose
weather-beaten coast provided the
artist with his most inspiring subject
matter. Homer spent much of his
last twenty-five years at Prouts Neck
and garnered close relationships with
neighbors and the local fishermen.
His works are found in important
collections throughout the United
States.
Maine
Antonio Jacobsen (1850-1921)
Otter Cliffs, Bar Harbor, Maine 1908
Oil on board 8 x 12 inches Signed and dated, lower right
Antonio Jacobsen, foremost chronicler
of American shipping in the late 19th
and early 20th Centuries, painted ships
as they passed out of the age of sail into
the age of steam. Jacobsen was born in
Copenhagen, Denmark, and came to
New York City in 1871 to avoid being
drafted into the Franco-Prussian War.
He spent his days in Battery Park looking
for work, and would pause to sketch the
ships in the harbor. He initially earned
his living by decorating the doors to safes
for Marvin Safe Company. In 1880 he
moved to West Hoboken, New Jersey
and continued to create portraits of
ships, often receiving commissions from
ship owners and captains, and eventually
steamship companies. The Old
Dominion, Fall River, and White Star
Steamship Lines commissioned him to
create portraits of all the vessels in their
fleets. Jacobsen became one of America’s
premier marine artists. He occasionally
turned from ship portraits to coastal
subjects, as in this rare view of the
dramatic granite cliffs at Bar Harbor,
Maine.
Maine
Constantin Alexandrovitch Westchiloff (1877-1945)
Coastal View, Maine
Oil on board 11 x 14 inches
Signed, lower left
Constantin Alexandrovitch Westchiloff (1877-1945)
Rocky Coast, Maine
Oil on board 11 x 14 inches
Signed and inscribed, “Maine,” lower left
Impressionist painter Constantin Alexandrovitch Westchiloff was born in Russia. He studied with Ilya Repin at the Royal Academy in St.
Petersburg in 1898. In 1919 he exhibited at the First Free State Exhibition in Petrograd. He was also active in theatre design at the Petrograd
Technical Institute. Westchiloff traveled extensively throughout Europe and the United States, establishing a studio in New York City. His favored
medium was oil. He painted landscapes, portraits, figure and genre subjects, and is best known for his seascapes and harbor scenes, particularly of
the New England coast, especially Maine. The artist eventually settled in New England, where he died in 1945.
Maine
Carroll Sargent Tyson (1877-1956)
Blue Hill, Maine
Oil on canvas 25 x 30 inches Signed, lower left
American Impressionist painter Carroll Tyson was
born in Philadelphia, where he lived for most of
his life. During the summers, he worked out
of a studio in Northeast Harbor, Maine, a
picturesque village on Mount Desert Island. This
setting was one of numerous coastal locations
around Blue Hill, Maine, that afforded Tyson
subjects for his most sought-after paintings.
Many artists throughout American history have
been inspired by the natural beauty of the Maine
coastline, with its recreation activities and fishing
and shipping industries that developed along the
shore. Tyson studied with William Merritt Chase,
Thomas Anshutz, and Cecilia Beaux at the
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He also
studied with Carl Marr and Walter Thor in
Munich, Germany. Tyson painted landscapes,
seascapes, nature studies, and nudes in oil,
watercolor, and pastel; he also produced prints of
his works. Tyson was a discerning art collector,
as well, and his estate included works by Renoir,
Manet, Van Gogh, Goya, and Degas. He was a
member of the National Academy of Design, the
Philadelphia Art Club, and the Society of Independent Artists.
Massachusetts
Colonial portrait painter Joseph Blackburn was probably born in
England. His style often emphasized artifice over realism, introducing
fanciful costumes, lavish interior and garden settings, exaggerated jewelry,
and dramatic poses derived from English mezzotints. He worked in Bermuda from 1752 to 1753, receiving commissions from the leading families
of the island. He relocated to the colonies and became successful in
Newport, Rhode Island, at that time one of the major shipping centers of
the Atlantic trade. Blackburn enjoyed success throughout New England,
especially in Boston and Newburyport, Massachusetts and Portsmouth
and Exeter, New Hampshire due to the patronage of wealthy colonists who
appreciated his flattering likenesses and his skill at depicting silks, laces, and
satins. One such portrait, shown here, is of William Taylor, a prominent
Boston merchant who was elected captain of the Milton regiment of the
Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company in 1760. Taylor married Sarah
Cheeney in 1765 and died at the age of 75 in Milton. Blackburn was
Boston’s leading portrait painter until he was surpassed in popularity by
John Singleton Copley. Blackburn returned to London late in 1764, and
painted in England, Dublin, and Wales between 1768 and 1777.
Joseph Blackburn (1700-1778)
Colonel William Taylor (1714-1789)
of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company
circa 1755-58
Oil on canvas 30 x 25 inches
Massachusetts
John Singleton Copley, the premier portrait painter of the American colonies,
was born in Boston. He first received art instruction from his stepfather, Peter
Pelham, a London-trained engraver. While his early work was inspired by John
Smibert and Joseph Blackburn, and drew heavily from English mezzotints for
ideas about composition, settings, and costumes, the young painter quickly
developed his own style, which included emphasizing the individuality of his
sitters. Among the prominent colonists who sat for him was Lady Elizabeth
Bowdoin Temple, daughter of James Bowdoin, Governor of Massachusetts.
Reverend Manasseh Cutler, who dined with the Temples in New York in 1787,
described Lady Temple as the greatest beauty he had ever seen. Her smiles
alone “could not fail of producing the softest sensibility in the fiercest savage.”
John Hancock commissioned Copley to create a portrait of Samuel Adams. In
his most openly political portrait, Copley depicts Adams confronting Governor
Thomas Hutchinson over the rights of the Massachusetts colony on the eve of
the American Revolution. Copley achieved a degree of financial success that
allowed him to live in the same style as his patrons. The artist settled in
London where he continued painting portraits, numbering among his patrons
British aristocrats and royals.
John Singleton Copley (1738-1815)
Lady Temple [Elizabeth Bowdoin of Boston] (1750-1809)
circa 1767
Pastel on paper laid down on canvas 23 x 18 1/4 inches
Massachusetts
Renowned American portraitist Gilbert Stuart was born in Saunderstown, North
Kingstown, Rhode Island, and moved with his family to Newport in 1761, where he
took lessons from artist Samuel King. As a boy, Stuart learned to sketch faces from
an African slave, Neptune Thurston. In 1775 he went to London to study portraiture
and was hired to paint draperies and backgrounds in the studio of the American
expatriate artist Benjamin West. Stuart set up his own studio in 1782 and found
immediate success. In 1793 Stuart sailed back to what had become the United States,
intending to make his fortune painting portraits of the new American president,
George Washington. Stuart painted at least one hundred versions of the three
portraits of Washington he had done from life. Best-known is his 1796 “Athenaeum”
portrait, which is the image on the US dollar bill. In 1805 Stuart settled in Boston.
In 1816, when the Rev. John Thornton Kirkland sat for Stuart, he was serving as the
fourteenth President of Harvard College. Kirkland presided over what is known as
the “Augustan Age of Harvard,” raising intellectual standards, instituting new
methods of instruction – such as the lecture – and banishing the brew houses,
privies, sheep, and pigs from Harvard Yard.
Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828)
Portrait of the Reverend John Thornton Kirkland 1816
Oil on wood panel 32 1/2 x 25 1/4 inches
Cortlandt V.D. Hubbard
(1912-2000)
Massachusetts Hall, Harvard University
circa 1930s
Silver print 7 x 9 1/4 inches
Massachusetts
Allen Crocker was a Boston attorney, author
of law books, bookstore proprietor, and close
friend of Gilbert Stuart.
Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828)
Allen Crocker circa 1815
Oil on canvas 26 x 21 inches
Edwin Graves Champney was a member of the
well-known New England artistic family that
included the White Mountain School painter
Benjamin Champney, the genre painter James
Wells Champney, and the miniaturist Marie
Champney Humphreys. Edwin was born in
Boston, but moved with his family to Woburn,
Massachusetts. He studied briefly in 1861 in
North Conway, New Hampshire with his uncle
Benjamin. During the Civil War, Edwin was
stationed at Fort Macon on Hatteras Island in
the Outer Banks of North Carolina; he made
many sketches of army life. In 1871 Champney
traveled to the Netherlands and studied at the
Royal Academy in Antwerp. He also traveled
to Düsseldorf and Paris, returning to Boston
in 1875. In 1876 he worked as an assistant to
John La Farge during the mural decoration
of Trinity Church, Boston. Champney taught
drawing at the newly opened School of the
Boston Museum of Fine Arts. In the late 1800s
the artist rented part of the Munroe Tavern
in Lexington, a 1695 building that served as a
field hospital for retreating British troops at the
battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775, now
preserved as a museum.
Edwin Graves Champney (1842-1899)
Interior of the Munroe Tavern,
Lexington, Massachusetts
circa 1885
Oil on canvas
15 x 9 inches
Provenance: Family of the artist
Massachusetts
Influential marine artist Robert Salmon was born
in England, near the Scottish border. Salmon
lived in the ship-building town of Greenock on
the west coast of Scotland from 1811 to 1822.
His detailed depictions of sailing vessels reveal an
intimate knowledge of ships and the sea, and reflect the influence of 17th century Dutch marine
painting. Salmon immigrated to Boston in 1828
and is credited with establishing the Luminist
tradition in American painting. The many
paintings Salmon produced of Boston and its
environs include several works featuring Boston
fires, most notably two completed in 1831 depicting a fire on Broad Street. He established himself
primarily as a painter of marine scenes and ship
portraits, but also painted theatrical scenery and
panoramas. The artist maintained a studio on
Marine Railway Wharf. Despite great success as
a painter, Salmon resided in a small hut on the
wharves of Boston Harbor. He left Boston in
1842, presumably to return to England. His last
dated works are Italian scenes done in 1845.
Robert Salmon (1775-1844)
Fire in Broad Street, Boston 1831
Oil on panel 8 x 9 7/8 inches Signed and inscribed on verso: “painted by/R Salmon/1831”
Massachusetts
Robert Havell, Jr. (1793-1878)
View of the City of Boston: From Dorchester Heights 1841
Aquatint and engraving, printed in color
12 x 17 5/8 inches
Painted & Engraved by Robt Havell. Printed by W. Neale. Colored by Havell & Spearing
Robert Havell, Jr., the principal engraver of
John James Audubon’s Birds of America, was
born in Reading, England. The Havell family
were expert engravers and the foremost
practitioners of the aquatint method of
etching. Working in London, under the
direct supervision of Audubon and his son
Victor and with an army of colorists, Robert
produced all but the first ten plates of
Audubon’s masterpiece. Havell and Audubon became close friends as well as
collaborators. Havell visited Audubon in
New York City at the naturalist’s invitation
in 1839. Havell stayed first in Brooklyn, then
moved to Ossining on the Hudson River,
and finally settled in Tarrytown, New York.
During this time Havell traveled in a horsedrawn trailer and sketched the countryside,
later producing studio landscapes in oil and
watercolor from his drawings. His paintings
are in the Hudson River School style. Havell
continued to make engravings and aquatints,
as well, and produced panoramas of
American cities, such as his important and
rare early view of Boston from Dorchester
Heights.
Massachusetts
Fitz Henry Lane (1804-1865)
Squall at the Entrance to Gloucester Harbor 1842
Oil on canvas 20 x 30 inches
Signed and dated, lower right
Established in 1623, Gloucester,
Massachusetts, on Cape Ann, is
America’s oldest seaport and has
played an important role in the
economic and cultural history of
New England. Gloucester was a
major shipbuilding center. The
first schooner was built there in
1713. Gloucester is also famous
for fishing. Catches of cod,
haddock, redfish, and flounder
supported a great fleet of nearly
four hundred schooners. Gloucester’s working harbor, scenic
beauty, and quality of light have
attracted generations of artists.
Smith Cove is home to the Rocky
Neck Art Colony, the oldest in
the country. A host of important
19th century painters established
Gloucester as an arts center,
beginning with native-born Fitz
Henry Lane. Historic New
England maintains the 1907
Sleeper-McCann House,
“Beauport,” in Gloucester.
Massachusetts
Gustavus X. Frankenstein (1827-1893)
Sunrise, Salem, Massachusetts circa 1860
Oil on academy board 9 ½ x 12 inches
Inscribed on verso: “Sunrise, Salem, Mass. Painted from Nature by Gustavus Frankenstein”
Landscape and marine painter, scientist and
mathematician, author, botanist, clockmaker,
and art teacher, Gustavus Frankenstein was born
in Darmstadt, Germany. The Frankenstein family
emigrated and, surviving shipwreck off the coast
of Virginia, settled in Cincinnati, Ohio. Young
Gustavus trained as a clockmaker. When the
family moved to Springfield, Ohio, he became a
teacher at the Springfield Female Seminary. In
the 1850s Frankenstein’s brother Godfrey enlisted
his help in painting a panorama of Niagara Falls,
the exhibition of which became a popular public
attraction. Frankenstein painted in New England
as well, as in this sunrise view of the 19th century
China Trade shipping center, Salem,
Massachusetts. In 1867 he embarked on a
sketching tour of Europe with Godfrey.
Frankenstein lived for periods in Florida, Hawaii,
and Bermuda before returning to Springfield,
Ohio, where he built a studio near the family
home and continued his clockmaking and
painting. He also wrote popular stories for young
people. Frankenstein is most famous for
constructing the perfect cube of order 8.
Massachusetts
James E. Buttersworth (1817-1894)
Yachting in Boston Harbor
Oil on artist board 7 1/2 x 11 inches
Signed lower right: “J.E. Buttersworth”
Inscribed on verso: “Yachting in Boston Harbor”
Leading 19th century marine artist James
Edward Buttersworth was born in Middlesex
County, England. He began his career studying under his father Thomas,
himself a respected marine artist. Buttersworth immigrated to the United States,
arriving in New York in the midst of the
Golden Age of sail and steam. He busied
himself chronicling the maritime world
of New York Harbor, later settling in West
Hoboken, New Jersey. The artist supplemented
his income from the sale of paintings by
working for Currier and Ives lithographers.
Buttersworth recorded all types of vessels to
be found along the New York, New Jersey
and New England coasts, from packet ships,
steamships, clipper ships, and naval frigates, to
harbor craft and racing yachts, such as those
depicted here in Boston Harbor. He also
portrayed warships and historic naval actions.
He represented ships with great accuracy.
Buttersworth painted nine America’s Cup
races, from 1870 to 1893. His career spanned
sixty years, comprising a significant contribution to the preservation of a colorful period in
American maritime history that is important
in the heritage of the New England region.
Massachusetts
Lemuel D. Eldred (1848-1921)
Fairhaven, Massachusetts 1893
Oil on canvas 16 x 28 inches Signed and dated, lower left
Marine and landscape painter and etcher Lemuel D.
Eldred was born at Poverty Point, a former
shipbuilding and whaling center in Fairhaven,
Massachusetts. He was a boatbuilder’s son. His early
teachers included Fairhaven natives: portraitist
William Mosher; painter and decorator Caleb
Purrington; and celebrated marine painter William
Bradford. Eldred established a studio in Boston
around 1875. The young painter furthered his
studies in Europe at the Académie Julian in Paris.
Eldred specialized in marine subjects, especially
scenes along the New England coast, the Bay of
Fundy, and the St. Lawrence River. He painted
inland landscapes as well, as in his views of the
White Mountains of New Hampshire. He also
painted scenes inspired by his journeys through
Spain, Italy, the Mediterranean, and northern
Africa. In his seventies, Eldred turned to etching as
his preferred medium. He produced popular series
depicting old whaling vessels and harbor scenes and
the frigate Constitution. He spent his later years in
Boston and at Bradford’s old studio in Fairhaven.
Massachusetts
Dean of the Cape Ann School, Frederick Mulhaupt was
born in Rock Port, Missouri. After moving to Kansas
City, he apprenticed with an itinerant sign painter and
studied at the Kansas City School of Design. Mulhaupt
then went to Chicago, where he enrolled at the Art
Institute. In 1904 Mulhaupt moved to New York. Later,
he lived in Paris for several years and also traveled to
St. Ives in Cornwall, England, where he painted the
Cornish coastline and fishing towns. In 1907 Mulhaupt
began spending summers in Gloucester, Massachusetts,
becoming a year-round resident in 1922 and establishing
a studio on Rocky Neck. This painting depicts the
deliverance of an injured crewman from a fishing boat of
the Cape Ann fleet. The ship’s broken bowsprit is visible
and its upside-down flag signifies distress. Whether this
scene depicts an actual event Mulhaupt witnessed or
something from the annals of fishing on Cape Ann is
uncertain. In any event, this impressionist masterpiece
is a tribute to the harsh realities of the New England
fishing industry.
“It is not the going out of port, but the coming in,
that determines the success of the voyage.”
Henry Ward Beecher
Frederick Mulhaupt (1871-1938)
Disaster at Sea circa 1915
Oil on canvas 36 x 36 inches Signed, lower left
Massachusetts
Founder of the Pop Art movement, Andy Warhol was born in Forest
City, Pennsylvania. He attended the Carnegie Institute of Technology
(now Carnegie Mellon University) in Pittsburgh and worked during the
summers creating window displays for the Joseph Horne Department
Store. He moved to New York City and began a career as a commercial
artist. By 1955 Warhol was the most successful commercial artist in New
York. The first public appearance of his comic strip characters was a
window display for Lord and Taylor in 1961. His first exhibition consisted of thirty-two versions of his Campbell’s Soup Can at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles in 1962. His second exhibition, which included his
Red Elvis and Marilyn variations, made him famous. Warhol’s East 47th
Street studio, known as the Factory, became the center of pop culture
in New York. His silk-screened images of iconographic objects such as
dollar bills, Coca-Cola bottles, and the faces of celebrities and politicians
became highy sought-after by art enthusiasts. The silkscreen print of U.S.
Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts was created by Warhol as
a fundraiser for the 1980 Kennedy presidential campaign.
“For what Pericles said to the Athenians has long been
true of this Commonwealth: ‘We do not imitate – for
we are a model to others.’ ”
President John F. Kennedy
Andy Warhol (1928-1987)
Edward Kennedy 1980
Silkscreen print with ruby diamond dust on museum board
40 x 32 inches Signed and numbered, lower right
New Hampshire
American School (18th - early 19th Century)
Mrs. George Jaffrey IV (Eliza Wetherell Jaffrey) circa 1810
Oil on cradled wood panel 28 x 23 inches
Provenance: Descendants of the sitter, the Jaffrey Family,
Jaffrey, New Hampshire
American School (18th - early 19th Century)
George Jaffrey IV (born Jeffries) circa 1810
Oil on cradled wood panel 28 x 23 inches
Provenance: Descendants of the sitter, the Jaffrey Family,
Jaffrey, New Hampshire
New Hampshire
Samuel L. Gerry (1813-1891)
White Mountain Landscape
Oil on canvas 8 x 13 inches Signed, lower left
“Men hang out their signs indicative of their respective
trades; shoe makers hang out a gigantic shoe; jewelers a
monster watch, and the dentist hangs out a gold tooth; but
up in the Mountains of New Hampshire, God Almighty has
hung out a sign…”
Daniel Webster
A leader of the White Mountain
School of painting, Samuel Lancaster
Gerry was born in Boston. He began
his career as a sign and decorative
painter in partnership with fellow
artist James Burt out of their shop on
Cornhill at the foot of Washington
Street. Gerry painted in the Hudson
River School style and was largely selftaught. Besides landscape painting,
Gerry is noted for portraiture as well
as genre and animal subjects. He was
founder and president of the Boston
Art Club. Gerry made several trips
abroad, traveling through France,
England, Switzerland, and Italy. Upon
his return to the United States, he
established a studio in Boston and
taught art classes at the Tremont
Street Studio Building. He made many
painting trips to the lake district and
White Mountains of New Hampshire.
Along with many other artists, Gerry
frequented Benjamin Champney’s
North Conway studio. Gerry died in
Roxbury, Massachusetts, in 1891. The
artist’s works are held in collections
across the United States.
New Hampshire
William Hart (1823-1894)
New Hampshire Landscape 1857
Oil on canvas 32 x 48 inches Signed and dated, lower right
An important second generation Hudson
River School painter, William Hart was
born in Paisley, Scotland. Hart studied art
in Scotland before immigrating to Albany,
New York with his family. As a youth he
worked painting coaches and decorating
window-shades, and also took up portrait
painting. By the time Hart was eighteen,
he was a professional portrait painter,
and by 1847 had established a reputation
as a landscape painter. He was mainly
self-taught, though George Inness and
Asher B. Durand were major influences
on his work. By 1854 he had established
a studio in New York City. Hart traveled
throughout the United States, particularly
Michigan, where he spent several years.
Many of his paintings are dramatic seascapes depicting the coast of Maine, most
frequently from Grand Manan Island. In
the late 1850s and throughout the 1860s,
he also made frequent sketching trips to
the White Mountains of New Hampshire.
This major exhibition landscape painting
by Hart depicts an idyllic summer day in
antebellum New Hampshire. Many of his
paintings were produced as engravings and
widely distributed.
New Hampshire
David Johnson (1827-1908)
Mount Chocorua, New Hampshire
Oil on canvas 4 3/8 x 6 1/4 inches (shown actual size) Signed with monogram, lower left
Hudson River School
landscape artist David
Johnson was born in New
York City. Johnson studied at
the National Academy of
Design and briefly with fellow
artist Jasper F. Cropsey.
Johnson made his first study
from nature in 1847 in the
company of Luminist painter
John F. Kensett, who became a
lifelong friend. In 1851 Johnson
made the first of many
sketching trips to the White
Mountains, visiting North
Conway with John W. Casilear.
The picturesque profile of
Mount Chocorua captured
his imagination, as did the
primeval drama of Franconia
Notch. Johnson made numerous painting trips throughout
New England and New York
State. His work was exhibited
widely in the United States
and in Paris. The artist died in
1908 in Walden, New York. His
paintings are found in museum
and private collections across
the United States.
New Hampshire
Harrison Bird Brown (1831-1915)
View of the White Mountains from Jones Farm 1862
Oil on canvas 25 1/4 x 42 1/4 inches
Signed, dated, and inscribed (on the stretcher):
“White Mt. from/N. Jone’s Farm/Painted by HBBrown 1862”
Landscape and marine painter Harrison Bird
Brown was born in 1831 in Portland, Maine.
As a young man, Brown apprenticed as a
house and ship painter with Forbes and Wilson in Portland before advancing to sign and
banner painting and opening his own shop.
By 1857 Brown had begun easel painting. The
artist became known for his White Mountain
landscapes, such as the one shown here, and
marine paintings of Maine’s Casco Bay and
New Brunswick’s Grand Manan Island. He
also produced two widely distributed illustrations of Crawford Notch for the Maine
Central Railroad in 1890. Brown became the
best known native Maine painter of his time,
and gained fame for himself and the state with
a large canvas in the Maine pavilion of the 1893
World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. In
1892 he was elected president of the Portland
Society of Art, which he had helped found ten
years earlier. Also in 1892, the artist moved to
England, where he remained for the rest of his
life and continued to paint. This panoramic
view of the White Mountains is typical of the
finest creative output of this well-known New
England artist. The subject demonstrates the
appeal that the picturesque White Mountains
have long held as a popular tourist destination.
New Hampshire
The original Whaleback Lighthouse was built in
1829-30. It remained in use until 1872, although
it was poorly built and leaked heavily in storms
and high seas. To remedy the problem, a second
lighthouse was constructed alongside the first in
1870-71. The new light went into operation in
1872. The old tower was allowed to stand, with its
light removed, until 1880 when it was torn down.
A Daboll fog trumpet was installed at its top in
1877. William Trost Richards’ Whaleback
Lighthouse, off Portsmouth, New Hampshire depicts
the old and the new Whaleback lighthouses side-byside during the period from 1871-72 to 1877. This
painting was once owned by Le Grand Lockwood
(1820-1872), Treasurer of the New York Stock
Exchange. One of the country’s first millionaires,
Lockwood built a mansion in his boyhood home of
Norwalk, Connecticut, and filled it with paintings,
statuary and antiques.
William Trost Richards (1833-1905)
Whaleback Lighthouse, off Portsmouth,
New Hampshire circa 1872
Oil on canvas 25 3/4 x 36 1/2 inches Signed, lower left
William Trost Richards (1833-1905)
Hampton Beach, New Hampshire 1869
Graphite on blue paper 6 7/8 x 13 3/4 inches
Inscribed: “Hampton Beach”
and dated “July 29, ’69” lower right;
inscribed “Gray, brown muck,” lower center
Provenance: Family of the Artist
New Hampshire
Alfred T. Bricher (1837-1908)
White Mountain Landscape with Fisherman (Mount Chocorua, New Hampshire) 1864
Oil on canvas 16 x 26 inches Signed and dated, lower left
Marine and landscape painter Alfred
Thompson Bricher was born in
Portsmouth, New Hampshire, but
relocated with his family to
Newburyport, Massachusetts. Bricher
moved to Boston to seek employment,
and worked as a clerk at a mercantile
house while painting part-time. As an
artist, Bricher was largely self-taught. In
1858 he began painting full-time and
established a studio in Newburyport.
That year he made the first of many
sketching trips through New York,
New Jersey, and New England. He also
sketched along the Mississippi River
and in the Midwest. Later, he discovered the attractions of the Rhode Island
coast and the rugged beauty of the
coasts of Maine and New Brunswick,
Canada. In 1859 Bricher opened a
studio in Boston, relocating to New
York City in 1868. In 1890 he built a
home in New Dorp, on Staten Island.
New Hampshire
One of the greatest sculptors in American history, Augustus
Saint-Gaudens was born in Dublin, Ireland. He was brought as an
infant by his family to New York City. At age thirteen he
apprenticed as a cameo cutter. He studied at the Cooper Union,
National Academy of Design, and École des Beaux-Arts in Paris,
as well as in Rome and Florence. His first major commission,
completed in 1881, was “Admiral Farragut,” in Madison Square
Park, New York City. Saint-Gaudens helped found the
Society of American Artists and co-founded the American
Academy in Rome. Shown in this medallion portrait is William
Evarts Beaman (1881-1945) as a little boy, the son of New York
attorney Charles Cotesworth Beaman, Jr. and Hettie Sherman
Evarts Beaman. The portrait was commissioned by the Beamans
and completed during Saint-Gaudens’ first summer in Cornish,
New Hampshire as payment for the house and studio the artist
was renting on the Beamans’ farm. Saint-Gaudens settled yearround in Cornish, where a vibrant and influential arts colony
grew up around his studio.
Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848-1907)
William Evarts Beaman in His Fourth Year 1885
Bronze 18 1/2 x 18 1/2 inches in diameter
New Hampshire
Childe Hassam (1859-1935)
Sunset and the New Moon - Isles of Shoals
1905
Oil on panel 6 1/2 x 9 inches
Signed and dated, lower left
Private collection
Childe Hassam (1859-1935)
Sunset Sky (Isles of Shoals, New Hampshire) 1908
Oil on panel 4 5/8 x 7 3/4 inches Signed on verso
Private collection
The Isles of Shoals are a group of nine small rocky islands located ten miles off the coast of New England. The island
group is divided by the border between Maine and New Hampshire. The Isles were a prime destination for European
fishermen before the Pilgrims landed. The largest of the islands is Appledore (formerly Hog Island). Early colonial
cod-fishing communities were based on the islands. During the Revolutionary War the islanders were evacuated to the
mainland. The islands remained largely abandoned until the middle of the 19th Century, when Thomas Laighton and
Levi Thaxter opened a popular summer hotel on Appledore. Laighton’s daughter, Celia, married Levi. Celia Thaxter was
a painter, gardener, and one of the most popular of New England poets. Much of Thaxter’s writing was inspired by the
Isles of Shoals. She was the hostess of a vibrant summer salon on Appledore where artists, writers, and musicians gathered,
including Childe Hassam
Rhode Island
Charles Blaskowitz was one of the most highly trained and skilled cartographers in
the British military. His 1777 chart of Narragansett Bay and Plan of the Town of
Newport were executed as part of an ambitious plan to map the entire Atlantic
seaboard from New Brunswick to New York. Samuel Holland, first Surveyor-General
of lands for the Northern District of British North America, undertook the mission
in 1764 with the intention of providing the British government with the best possible maps of the Atlantic coast during a time when the colonies were
beginning to show signs of insurrection. Blaskowitz was responsible for Rhode
Island, and one of his purposes was to determine Newport’s potential as a naval
base. The results of his survey were remarkably precise and detailed. Blaskowitz’s
chart shows strategic fortifications, farms, and even the names of the farmers.
Narragansett Bay proved to be a strategic port and was the site of a significant
confrontation between the HMS Rose and the Newport colonists over smuggling;
this event helped initiate the American Revolution.
Charles Blaskowitz (18th Century)
A Topographical Chart of the Bay of Narragansett in the Province of New England,
with all the Isles Contained Therin, among which Rhode Island and Conanicut have
been particularly surveyed, showing the true position and bearings by the Banks,
Shoals, Rocks, etc. as likewise the Soundings 1777
Engraving on paper 40 x 28 inches Inscribed: “Engraved and printed for Wm. Faden, Charing Cross, as the act
directs, July 22nd, 1777.”
Rhode Island
John Frederick Kensett (1816-1872)
Spouting Rock, Newport, Rhode Island circa 1865
Oil on canvas 14 x 24 inches
John Frederick Kensett was a leading
member of the second generation
of Hudson River School painters.
Born in Connecticut, the son of an
English immigrant engraver, Kensett
received training in that field from his
father. At age twenty-four he traveled
to Europe, where he remained until
1847. Upon his return to America the
artist set up a studio in the New York
University Building. He spent many
summers painting in the mountains of
New York, Vermont, New Hampshire,
Massachusetts, and Maine with artist
friends such as John Casilear, Benjamin
Champney, and Frederick Church.
He also painted in Ohio, New Jersey,
West Virginia, on the Great Lakes,
and at Niagara Falls, often with his
friend Louis Lang. He traveled with
fellow painters up the Missouri and
Mississippi Rivers and to Montana
and Colorado. Kensett first came to
Newport, Rhode Island in 1854. By
the 1860s Kensett had reached the
height of his career as a Luminist
painter. Many of the artist’s finest
and most sought-after paintings were
executed along the Newport shore.
Rhode Island
“Along the gray rocks of the Rhode Island shore, of which
he was so fond, and which is nowhere so truthfully shone
as by his hand, the moan of the ocean has henceforth a
deeper pathos.”
Eulogy of John F. Kensett 1872
George W. Curtis
John Frederick Kensett (1816-1872)
Beacon Rock, Newport 1863
Oil on paper mounted on board 5 x 9 inches
Signed with monogram and dated, lower right
Private collection
Joshua A. Williams (1817-1892)
Fort Dumpling, Newport, Rhode Island
circa 1860s-1870s
Stereoscopic albumen print 3 3/8 x 6 7/8 inches
Inscribed with location on verso
John Frederick Kensett (1816-1872)
Twilight: Fort Dumpling, Near Newport, Rhode Island 1854
Oil on academy board 7 3/4 x 12 1/8 inches
Signed and dated, lower center
Private collection
Rhode Island
Martin Johnson Heade (1819-1904)
Coast of Newport 1874
Oil on canvas 51 x 72 inches Signed and dated, lower left
Provenance: Louisville Liberty National Bank and Trust Company, Louisville, Kentucky
Exhibited: Louisville Industrial Exposition, 1875
Landscape, portrait, and still life painter, poet
and naturalist, Martin Johnson Heade is one of
the most important American Romantic
painters of the 19th Century and one of the
major figures in the development of Luminism.
Born in Pennsylvania, he received his first art
training from local painters Edward and Thomas
Hicks. In 1858 Heade took a studio in the Tenth
Street Studio building in New York City. He
also kept a studio at times in Providence, Rhode
Island, and in Boston. Heade traveled widely,
painting both small detailed nature studies
and large landscapes. Although Heade traveled
throughout the world, the time he spent living
and working in Rhode Island from the late 1850s
to the early 1870s had the greatest impact on his
work. His early landscapes were roughly imitative
of the Hudson River School. Inspired, however,
by the rich natural beauty and the unusual qualities of light and atmosphere of the Narragansett
Bay region, Heade began to develop his mature
Luminist style. In 1883 the artist settled in St.
Augustine, Florida.
Rhode Island
Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902)
Fishing Station, Watch Hill, Rhode Island
Oil on paper mounted on canvas 14 1/2 x 19 inches
Signed with monogram, lower leftSigned and inscribed with title on stretcher
One of the most celebrated artists of his day,
Hudson River School painter Albert Bierstadt
was born in Prussia. When a child, his family
immigrated to America and settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts. In 1853 Bierstadt studied in
Düsseldorf with two American painters in residence
there, Worthington Whittredge and Emmanuel
Leutze. He later made a sketching trip through Switzerland, over the Alps and into Italy with Whittredge and Sanford Gifford. Bierstadt returned
to the United States and made his first of many
trips to the American West in 1859, accompanying
Colonel Frederick West Lander. There, Bierstadt
began producing the vast, romantic landscapes for
which he became famous. The artist also sketched
and photographed in the White Mountains of
New Hampshire and in Rhode Island. His Fishing
Station, Watch Hill, Rhode Island depicts traditional
coastal New England fishing equipment, including dories and skiffs, a lobster trap, and drying
nets. From 1877 to 1893 the artist wintered in the
Caribbean. At the height of his success, Bierstadt
built a mansion and studio, “Malkasten,” in
Irvington-on-Hudson, New York.
Rhode Island
William Trost Richards (1833-1905)
A Rhode Island Farmhouse 1882
Watercolor on paper 9 1/4 x 14 1/2 inches
Signed and dated, lower left Provenance: Family of the artist
William Trost Richards is one of the most
important American landscape and marine
painters of the 19th century and one of
the many artists who found special inspiration in the natural environment around
Newport. He was born in Philadelphia, and
studied at an early age with the artist Paul
Weber. In 1853 Richards went to Europe
and studied in Paris, Florence, and Rome.
He returned to Europe several years later to
study in Dusseldorf, where he was influenced by the precisionist German draftsmen. He also became intrigued by the work
of the Pre-Raphaelite School, with their
attention to detail, particularly with regard
to elements of the landscape. Throughout
the 1860s, Richards painted primarily
along the Hudson River, particularly in the
Adirondacks, and around Philadelphia. In
the early 1870s, Richards began to paint
along the New Jersey coast and in the Narragansett Bay region. He first summered in
Newport in 1874 and purchased a home
on Gibbs Avenue in 1875. He continued
to paint in Newport and Jamestown for the
rest of his life, dividing his time between
his farm in Chester County, Pennsylvania,
Newport, Europe, and England.
Rhode Island
William Trost Richards is best known for the artworks he
created in Rhode Island, inspired by the sublime natural
beauty of the Narragansett Bay and its sandy beaches and
rocky shoreline. In 1882 he built a large cliff-top home
at “Gray Cliff” on Conanicut Island overlooking the
Bay. Richards died in Newport in 1905. Richards’ work
has been the subject of a number of important museum
exhibitions: St. Louis Museum of Fine Arts (1907);
Art Association of Newport (1954, 1976); Pennsylvania
Academy of the Fine Arts (1956, 1973); Brooklyn Museum (1973); the New Britain Museum of American Art
(1973); Metropolitan Museum of Art (1982-83); Hudson River Museum (1986); Brandywine River Museum
(2001); the Adirondack Museum (2002); and the Cantor
Center, Stanford University (2010). Richards exhibitions
are planned for the Brandywine River Museum and the
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts for 2011, and the
Newport Art Museum for 2012.
William Trost Richards (1833-1905)
Gathering Sea Weed 1883
Watercolor and pencil on paper 9 3/4 x 13 3/8 inches Signed and dated, lower right
“He copied what he saw with a minute fidelity, he was led
to copy because he loved what he saw and recognized light
shining through its surfaces. But if he had not also brought
to the worship of nature his own penetrating individuality,
he would not have made works which all his contemporaries
acknowledge as embodiments of truth and beauty when they
say, ‘That is a Richards.’”
Harrison S. Morris
William Trost Richards: Masterpieces of the Sea, 1912
Rhode Island
John La Farge is one of the most important
American artists and cultural figures of the
19th Century. He first came to Newport
in 1859 to study in the studio of William
Morris Hunt. He married Margaret Perry
of Newport and continued to live and work
there much of the time until his death in
1910. La Farge made significant contributions in many areas, including landscape,
flower and figure painting, mural decoration, stained glass design, book illustration,
and art teaching, writing, and criticism.
John La Farge (1835-1910)
Evening Study, Newport, RI (From Hazard’s Farm, Paradise Valley) 1871
Oil on panel 12 1/4 x 16 1/2 inches Signed and dated, lower left
“. . . the influences of Newport, of its skies,
its field tints and sea hues,
have been as unmistakably powerful
(on La Farge) as in the lasting effects
produced on Titian by the rocks and slopes
of his native Cadore.”
A. Bowman Dodd
The Art Journal
1885
Rhode Island
John La Farge (1835-1910)
Windmill (Newport, Windmill, Near Easton’s Pond Early Spring,
Southeast Wind) 1864
Oil on canvas 12 x 10 inches
John La Farge (1835-1910)
Winter Evening Sky (“Winter Evening Sky: Out-of-doors
study, from nature. Water Color.”) circa 1878
Watercolor on paper 10 3/4 x 9 inches
Rhode Island
John Henry Twachtman (1853-1902)
Paradise Rocks, Newport (Middletown, Rhode Island) circa 1889
Oil on canvas 31 1/2 x 47 inches
Signed, lower right
Leading American Impressionist John
Henry Twachtman was born in Cincinnati,
Ohio. He studied at the Ohio Mechanics
Institute, McMicken School of Design,
the Royal Academy in Munich, and the
Académie Julian in Paris. He taught at
Frank Duveneck’s school in Florence, and
painted in Holland, Germany, and Italy. In
1889, Twachtman taught open-air painting
classes in Newport, Rhode Island, perhaps
the earliest in the US. Paradise Rocks, Newport is the only known Newport painting
by Twachtman that is not a harbor view.
This image depicts an area near Newport
known as “Paradise” located behind
Sachuest Beach in Middletown. The artist
expertly conveys the feeling of standing in
the midst of the site on a cloudy midday.
The vantage point appears to be looking east from the south edge of Nelson’s
Pond. Behind the small island are the
pudddingstone ridges of the Paradise Hills,
often called Paradise Rocks. By the end of
1889 Twachtman was living in Greenwich,
Connecticut and teaching at Cos Cob with
Julian Alden Weir. He helped form the
Ten American Painters group in 1897. In
1900 he began renting a studio and teaching classes in Gloucester, Massachusetts.
Rhode Island
Frank Convers Mathewson (1862-1941)
State House: Springtime
Oil on canvas board 12 x 16 inches
Signed, lower right Titled and signed on verso
The view in Mathewson’s painting looks
down from College Hill (formerly Prospect
Hill) in Providence to the Rhode Island State
Capitol. The capitol is framed by the
buildings of the historic East Side. Roger
Williams founded Providence on this site
and it contains some of the oldest sections
of the city. The Providence Preservation
Society and the Rhode Island Historical
Society have preserved numerous historic
buildings in this area. Brown University and
the Rhode Island School of Design are
located here. The Rhode Island State House
is a neoclassical building on the National
Register of Historic Places. Designed by the
architectural firm of McKim, Mead, and
White and built from 1895 to 1904, it is
constructed of white Georgia marble. On
top of the dome is a statue of Independent
Man. The building is a testament to Rhode
Island’s political, cultural, and economic
standing at the turn of the century. The
Rhode Island State House Restoration Committee has restored the interior and many
of the historic portraits of the governors
that adorn the walls of the State House. Bill
Vareika was appointed a member of this
Committee by Governor Carcieri.
Rhode Island
One of America’s finest realist painters and lithographers, George Wesley Bellows was born in Columbus,
Ohio. Bellows studied with Silas Martin, William Merritt Chase, and Robert Henri. Henri was the leader of
“The Eight,” also called the Ash Can School, which had
a strong influence on the young artist’s style and subject
matter. Bellows spent the summer of 1911 painting on
Monhegan Island, off the coast of Maine, with Henri
and Rockwell Kent. This experience had a profound
effect on Bellows’ emerging style, as did his experiments
that summer with Maratta’s color theories. He returned
to the island often and explored the expressive potential
of strong, pure color, which would become one of his
trademarks. That same year, Bellows helped organize the
groundbreaking Armory Show in New York. In 1918 and
1919, the artist summered and painted on Aquidneck
Island in Rhode Island, producing this boldly depicted
Middletown landscape. In 1920 Bellows purchased land
in Woodstock, New York, where he built a studio and
home.
George Bellows (1882-1925)
Sun Beams and Rain (Middletown, Rhode Island) 1919
Oil on canvas 18 x 22 inches Signed, lower right
Vermont
William Trost Richards (1833-1905)
Lake Champlain 1855
Pencil on paper 3 3/8 x 11 3/8 inches Inscribed and dated, lower center Ptovenance: Family of the artist
Exhibition: The Adirondack Museum, Blue Mountain Lake, New York, 2002
Illustrated: Ferber, Linda S. and Welsh, Caroline M. In Search of a National Landscape: William Trost Richards and the Artists’ Adirondacks,
1850-1870 (Blue Mountain Lake, NY: The Adirondack Museum, 2002) illus. no. 4, p. 38
“Vermont is a state I love. I could not look upon the peaks of Ascutney, Killington, Mansfield, and Equinox without being moved in a way that no
other scene could move me. It was here that I first saw the light of day; here that I received my bride; here my dead lie, pillowed on the loving breast of
our everlasting hills. I love Vermont because of her hills and valleys, her scenery and invigorating climate, but most of all because of her indomitable
people. They are a race of pioneers who have almost beggared themselves to serve others. If the spirit of liberty should vanish in other parts of the
union and support of our institutions should languish, it could all be replenished from the generous store held by the people of this brave little state of
Vermont.”
President Calvin Coolidge, 1928
Vermont
Childe Hassam (1859-1935)
A Vermont Village 1923
Etching on paper 6 x 8 3/4 inches Signed with the artist’s “CH” monogram and dated 1923 in the plate, lower right
Signed with the artist’s “CH” monogram and inscribed “imp.” in pencil, lower right margin
One of the greatest American
Impressionist artists, Frederick Childe
Hassam was born in Dorchester,
Massachusetts. Early in his career,
Hassam apprenticed as a wood engraver
and worked as a freelance illustrator. He
studied drawing, anatomy, and painting
at the Lowell Institute in Boston and established a studio there. In 1883 he met
the poet and art patron Celia Thaxter,
and subsequently made many painting
trips to her summer home on Appledore
in the Isles of Shoals off the New Hampshire coast. From 1886 to 1889 Hassam
studied at the Académie Julian in Paris.
Upon returning to the United States,
he set up a studio in New York City.
In 1897 Hassam helped form the Ten
American Painters group, with whom he
exhibited throughout his career. Hassam
traveled widely, establishing an international reputation. The artist was fifty-six
years old when he turned his hand to
etching. He soon mastered this medium,
especially the effects of light, as is displayed in this view of a Vermont village
with its interplay of light and shadow
created by a passing shower.
Vermont
James King Bonnar (1883-1961)
Mount Equinox, Vermont circa 1950
Oil on canvas 25 x 39 1/2 inches
Signed, lower right
Rockport School painter,
designer, and teacher James King
Bonnar was born in North
Adams, Massachusetts and made
his home in Newtonville. He
studied at the Massachusetts
School of Art (now Massachusetts
College of Art) with Joseph
DeCamp and Ernest Major. He
was active in the North Shore,
Newton, and Rockport, Massachusetts art associations. Bonnar
painted and created murals in
private homes and institutions
throughout New England. It is
not known how many murals he
painted nor how many have survived. He was especially fond of
Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont,
and New Hampshire subjects.
These include harbor and coastal
scenes of the North Shore, Cape
Ann, and Martha’s Vineyard,
the shipbuilding industry, and
autumn and winter landscapes,
such as this snowy view of Mount
Equinox in Vermont.
Vermont
Unknown Photographer (19th Century)
View of the Town of Woodstock, Vermont circa 1880s
Albumen print 7 x 8 ½ inches
“When people who have never
lived in New Hampshire or
Vermont visit here, they often say
they feel like they’ve come home.
Our urban center, commercial
districts, small villages and
industrial enterprises are set amid
farmlands and forests. This
is a landscape in which the
natural and built environments
are balanced on a human scale.
This delicate balance is the nature
of our ‘community character.’
It’s important to strengthen our
distinctive, traditional settlement
patterns to counteract the
commercial and residential sprawl
that upsets this balance and
destroys our economic and social
stability.”
Richard J. Eward
Proud to Live Here
Unknown Photographer (19th Century)
Landscape View near Woodstock, Vermont circa 1880s
Albumen print 7 x 8 ½ inches
BACK COVER:
Anglo-American School
Thomas McDonogh
circa 1794
Oil on tin 12½ x 9¾ inches
Provenance: Descendants of the sitter, the Jaffrey Family, Jaffrey, New Hampshire
Note: Thomas McDonogh was born in County Sligo, Ireland. He came to America prior to the American Revolution as secretary to
John Wentworth, Royal Governor of New Hampshire. During the War, he spent time as a Loyalist in exile in Canada and in England.
Following the War and prior to 1794, McDonogh was made British Consul to New England and was headquartered in Boston.
He died on January 26, 1805, and is buried in Milton, Massachusetts.
William Vareika Fine Arts Ltd
The Newport Gallery of American Art
212 Bellevue Avenue • Newport, Rhode Island 02840
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