Massachusetts Masterpieces:
The Decoy as Art
An Exhibition at the Museum of American Bird Art
by Gigi Hopkins, Exhibition Curator, and
Amy T. Montague, Director, Museum of American Bird Art
published in
Hunting & Fishing Collectibles, Nov/Dec 2013
Greater Yellowlegs by unknown maker. From a private collection.
Massachusetts Masterpieces:
The Decoy as Art
An Exhibition at the Museum of American Bird Art
by Amy T. Montague, Director, Museum of American Bird Art
Gigi Hopkins opened my eyes to the wonders of Massachusetts decoys. But when
she first suggested that we follow up the
Museum’s successful Crowell exhibition
with one focused exclusively on Massachusetts birds, my response was, frankly,
lukewarm. I was reluctant because for
more than a decade the Museum had been
building a reputation for the professionalism and scope of its exhibitions and collections, which feature art of national and
international importance. I was concerned
that an exhibition focused on our state
would be perceived as parochial. However, Gigi provided one compelling reason after another why such an exhibition
could be both important and exciting.
She explained that the quality of design,
carving and paint, and the diversity of
styles found within such a limited geo-
Gigi knew immediately that the selection should begin with aesthetics: beauty. Additionally, she required striking design, effortless
woodworking and distinctive paint. And, equally important, each
bird should be an excellent portrait of the species it depicted.
We had the concept, and Gigi had in mind most of the decoys she
hoped to include, but in many cases we didn’t know who the current owners were. We shared our ideas with Stephen B. O’Brien, Jr.
of Copley Fine Art Auctions, and he was immediately enthusiastic,
offering to help us connect with potential lenders. His assistance
was invaluable throughout the exhibition development process.
We were fortunate to have loans from some of the finest folk art and
sporting art collections in the country, and are sincerely grateful to
the lenders who made the exhibition possible: Philip and Tina DeNormandie; the late, and deeply missed, Jim Doherty; Thomas K.
Figge; Ted and Judy Harmon; Paul Tudor Jones, II; Peter Van Dyke;
Cap and Paige Vinal; Henri Wedell; six collectors who preferred
their loans to be anonymous; and Historic New England. Our visits
with the lenders were a privilege and a delight.
In the pages that follow, we showcase some of the extraordinary decoys that were on view in the exhibition, May-September 2013. We
are currently fundraising to publish a book based on the exhibition,
and welcome donations and inquiries.
The main gallery of the Museum of American Bird Art
graphic area are remarkable. Unlike other parts of the
country, there is no regional school of decoy-making. Each
Yankee craftsman came to the task with his own eye, talent
and ingenuity. She led me through the stylized geometry of
Lincoln, the lively paint of Holmes, the sturdy shapeliness
of Lawrence, and much more. She also pointed out that the
collecting community had made the ultimate endorsement
of Massachusetts decoys: nine of the top ten record-setters
of the last four decades were Massachusetts birds.
The Coot Shooter by Frank W. Benson (1862-1951), oil on canvas, 1913. From a private collection
Gigi had made the case persuasively. I decided we would
proceed with the exhibition and wanted her voice as curator to be as present to the Museum’s visitors as it had been
to me in our own discussions. Her depth of experience with
decoys is unrivalled. For nearly five decades as a conservator she has examined them closely, learning to reproduce
the varied carving and paint techniques. The exhibition’s
strength would be based on her deep knowledge and discerning eye, and I was delighted when she agreed to write
the interpretive text from a personal perspective.
Preening Jack Curlew by A. Elmer Crowell (18621952). From a private collection
A Curator’s Quest for Beauty by Gigi Hopkins
How did I get into decoys? It was kind of inevitable. As
a child, I’d take my father’s Crowell birds into the light,
trying to figure out how the paint had been blurred.
Dad, who loved gunning, founded a firm that sold miniature waterfowl, and these were all over the house.
(They were great in the bathtub.) My mother adored
songbirds and came from a family of serious birders;
she even had a cousin who invented the glass hummingbird feeder.
When I was given the opportunity to curate this
exhibition, I immediately
knew that I wanted to select for beauty—and to me,
a beautiful decoy combines
both aesthetics and birdiness, kinship to the bird
portrayed.
From the beginning I was drawing and carving animals.
Then, in the sixties, I got hooked on birds. I spent hours
at Dad’s Cape Cod hunting camp scoping the mudflats for shorebirds. In the seventies, I carved birds for
Mass Audubon and spent four blissful years banding
song and shorebirds at Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences. In 1966 I restored my first decoy, and the
business took off like a rocket. Lucky timing! So in the
last—what, almost fifty?—years, I’ve had the privilege
of handling many thousands of wonderful decoys.
Every bird in the exhibition
stopped my heart when
I first saw it. In a way, it
became mine. And if I was Hopkins banding birds at
lucky, the owner would Manomet, 1977
send it to me for conservation work, and then I would
savor every moment with it.
It was an intense pleasure to bring these treasures together, and to bring them back to their home state.
Museum of American Bird Art at Mass Audubon
Massachusetts Masterpieces: The Decoy as Art
Wood Duck Drake
Benjamin Warren Pease (1866-1938), Martha’s
Vineyard
A quiet, attractive portrait finished in discreet
colors. Whereas the Lincoln Wood Duck is rather
cool and aloof, this decoy invites the viewer in with
its warmth and subtlety.
Wood Duck Drake
Joseph Whiting Lincoln (1859-1938), Accord
This is surely one of Lincoln’s most desirable decoys,
and one of his most renowned, with its clean shape,
geometric colors and remarkable condition.
Collection of Paul Tudor Jones, II
Collection of Thomas K. Figge
Red-breasted Merganser Drake
Captain Preston Wright (dates unknown),
Osterville
Red-breasted Merganser Drake
Henry Keyes Chadwick (1865-1958), Martha’s
Vineyard
Although worn by hard use in the field,
this bird remains a fine example of American folk art. Its horsehair crest is rare, and
the chiseled upper wing edges are an unexpected treat.
A slender, racy bird with delicate form, perfectly
matched with its refined, somewhat abstract
paint pattern. The head is slightly turned to the
left, giving it a sense of motion.
From a private collection
Collection of Ted and Judy Harmon
Red-breasted Merganser Pair
Clinton Thomas Keith (1887-1975), Kingston
Red-breasted Merganser Drake
Anthony Elmer Crowell (1862-1952), East Harwich
Keith was an exception to the rule of Massachusetts makers developing their own
style. He copied a pair of mergansers made
by Lothrop Holmes, a friend of his father’s.
But no known Holmes merganser has a
swimming hen—which is the most dynamic aspect of these two. Keith started with
Holmes but improved upon the master’s
design.
A decoy that provides striking contrast to the
merganser above. This massive bird is one of
Crowell’s best. In spite of its imposing size, it is
finished with fine details like the carved spray
of rump feathers falling over its chiseled wings.
The painted colors were kept discreet thus do not
subtract from the bird’s form. This merganser was
made for Harry V. Long of Boston and Cohasset,
an early, important patron of Crowell.
Collection of Paul Tudor Jones, II
Formerly George Ross Starr, M.D. Collection
Collection of Cap & Paige Vinal
Museum of American Bird Art at Mass Audubon
Massachusetts Masterpieces: The Decoy as Art
Golden Plover
Folger family (1800s), Nantucket
Oldsquaw Drake
Stephen Badlam (1822-1898), Boston
A beautifully-seen plover coming into winter plumage. The stylized paint pattern, though abbreviated,
is convincing and artistically pleasing. The same is
true of the plover’s shapely profile.
A snooty duck with great attitude and fine construction details. It was very likely made by a
grandson of Stephen Badlam (1751-1815), the
renowned Boston cabinetmaker.
Collection of Paul Tudor Jones, II
From a private collection
Eskimo Curlew
Folger family (1800s), Nantucket
Common Goldeneye Hen
Franklin Pierce Wright (1856-1939), Osterville
Another wonderful portrait of a now-extinct shorebird. Like its rig-mate, the Folger Golden Plover, its
curves are well balanced and the decoy is enhanced
with subtle coloring.
This modest little duck is superbly defined
by its carving. Such affectionate attention to
detail is rare in a gunning bird. Only two other
decoys are known by this maker.
From a private collection
Collection of Ted and Judy Harmon
Greater Yellowlegs
Unknown Maker
The group of five yellowlegs displayed in
the exhibition is from one of the most remarkable rigs of lively shorebirds ever
discovered. Each bird’s pose is different,
dynamic and beautifully seen. The carved
details—beaks, wings and tails—are impossibly delicate.
From a private collection
Canada Goose
Charles Augustus Safford (1877-1957),
Newburyport
An imposing goose constructed from
several pieces of laminated wood. The
seams remain tight, even though the decoy spent many gunning seasons out on
the marsh. It is finished with surprisingly
sensitive detail in the face.
Collection of Historic New England
Gift of Bertram K. and Nina Fletcher Little,
1991.1173
Massachusetts Masterpieces: The Decoy as Art
Museum of American Bird Art at Mass Audubon
Black-bellied Plover
Lothrop Turner Holmes (1824-1899), Kingston
Ruddy Turnstone
Lothrop Turner Holmes (1824-1899), Kingston
This Holmes Willis-rig plover is without peer and
pays perfect homage to its subject.The form cannot
be improved upon. The paint is breathtaking: the
playful lines on both sides that define the black and
white breast feathers overlaying one another are a
visual joy.
Here is perhaps the country’s most renowned shorebird
decoy, and deservedly so. Like its Black-bellied Plover
mate, the shape portrays the target bird wonderfully.
And the signature paint, capped by the bird’s famous
curlicues, is not to be outdone.
Collection of Peter Van Dyke
Formerly Philip Y. DeNormandie Collection, James M.
McCleery, M.D. Collection
Collection of Paul Tudor Jones, II
Formerly George Ross Starr, M.D. Collection, James M.
McCleery, M.D. Collection
Sandpiper
Anthony Elmer Crowell (1862-1952), East Harwich
Dovetail-headed Black-bellied Plover
Unknown maker, c. 1900
This diminutive feeding peep is one of the rarest
Crowell decoys known. It is an early work, with
carved wings similar to the famed 1910 dust jacket
rig of large plovers and greater yellowlegs.
A fine hollow bird with two-piece construction; it is
unusual in that the halves are cut horizontally. The
head-to-neck joint has a beautifully-crafted dovetail
between, whereby one can readily slip off the head. It
has an elegant plane on the upper tail which is painted with unusual crosshatched barring.
Collection of Jim and Pat Doherty
From a private collection
Black-bellied Plover Pair
Melvin Gardner Lawrence (c. 18801930), Revere
These two exemplify ingenious, indestructible design. Both are surprisingly
heavy, indicating they were made from
hardwood. The neck and beak on the
loafing bird are, of course, unbreakable—
but the wings and tail are also thick and
strong. The second bird is reaching forward, putting its neck along the wood
grain rather than across it. It, too, would
be nearly impossible to snap.
Collection of Thomas K. Figge
Curlew
Gordon Fox Rig (1800s), Duxbury
Here is one of the most seductive, curvaceous forms
seen in a shorebird decoy—yet the curlew looks as it
should. The bird is complimented by its deceptively
casual, painterly surface.
Collection of Henri Wedell
Formerly George Ross Starr, M.D. Collection
Massachusetts Masterpieces: The Decoy as Art
Museum of American Bird Art at Mass Audubon
An Art Museum Like No Other
Visit the Museum
by Amy T. Montague, Director, Museum of American Bird Art
The Museum of American Bird Art at Mass Audubon has a
unique and singular focus on art inspired by birds. Within
that focus, we collect and exhibit a broad range of art, embracing and expanding beyond the traditional categories
of fine art, sporting art, folk art and illustration. The consistent element we seek is quality, both in the works of art
and in the ways they are interpreted and displayed.
opened its doors to the public, and a year ago its name
was changed to the Museum of American Bird Art, to better reflect the focus of our mission.
The Museum’s History. From its founding in 1896, Mass
Audubon has been inextricably linked with art. Named for
John James Audubon, the legendary painter of American
birds, Mass Audubon quite naturally became the recipient
of generous gifts of artworks. And from the beginning, the
organization connected people to nature through art, using art to inspire and educate.
The Collection. In the early years, the collection’s core was
art by Audubon, including hand-colored engravings from
his Birds of America. Over time the collection expanded to
include paintings, sculpture, and works on paper by some
of the most acclaimed bird artists of Europe and America:
Louis Agassiz Fuertes, Frank W. Benson, Robert Verity
Clem, and Lars Jonsson, among others. The collection also
includes works by well known artists not usually associated with birds, such as Milton Avery, Leonard Baskin and
Andy Warhol. I will highlight here some artworks that
may be of particular interest to sporting art collectors.
Gifts and bequests of art by Audubon and others flowed
to the fledgling organization from its inception. And over
the years the collection grew to include paintings and
sculpture by some of the finest bird artists of Europe and
America. Remarkably, generations of Mass Audubon staff,
with expertise and responsibilities unrelated to art, cared
for these treasures without any designated facility or funding until the bequest of Mildred Morse Allen made it possible to develop a proper museum facility on her estate in
Canton. In 1999, the Mass Audubon Visual Arts Center
Frank Weston Benson was one of the most celebrated of
American impressionist painters, known equally for his
sun-drenched portraits of patrician Bostonians and his
evocative sporting art. Benson had a lifelong interest in
birds and served as the first president of the Essex County
Ornithological Club. He was also the great friend and duck
hunting companion of Augustus Hemenway, whose wife,
Harriet, was a founder of Mass Audubon. His oil painting,
The Duck Marsh (see opposite page), is one of my personal
favorites in the collection.
Ring-necked Pheasant Family by Allen James King (18811963). Mass Audubon Collection, gift of James Baird, 1997.
Anthony Elmer Crowell needs no introduction on the pages of this magazine. Along with an impressive group of
miniatures by Crowell, the collection includes a magnificent pair of green-winged teal (see opposite page), carved
for Crowell’s early patron, Harry V. Long.
The Museum of American Bird Art is located in
Canton, Massachusetts, 10 miles south of Boston.
Although Massachusetts Masterpieces is no longer on
view, a small gallery of decoys is on display along
with changing exhibitions. Check the website for
current exhibition information. And bring your
walking shoes to explore the trails of the 121-acre
wildlife sanctuary. For tours of the collection,
contact museum director Amy Montague.
Museum of American Bird Art at Mass Audubon
963 Washington St, Canton, MA 02021
massaudubon.org/maba p 781-821-8853
[email protected]
Allen James King was the preeminent miniature bird carver of his era. His compositions are unequalled for artistry,
detail, and integrity of form. The Museum holds the most
extensive and important collection of his work, including
more than 100 carvings, as well as works in a variety of
other mediums: watercolors, etchings, relief prints and astonishingly meticulous jewelry designs.
Exhibitions & Programs. The Museum presents three to
four exhibitions per year, with a wide range of artworks
represented. Some examples of our past exhibitions are: A.
Elmer Crowell: Master of Decoys which featured nine decoys
made by Crowell for Harry V. Long; The Art of Identification: Field Guide Paintings by David Sibley; and Nests, Eggs,
Heartbreak & Beauty, focusing on a rare and extraordinary
19th century ornithological book. As I write, the current
exhibition displays the bird photography of Arthur Morris, one of the world’s most renowned bird photographers.
An array of education programs for all ages draws on the
original art in the exhibitions and collections.
The Museum recently received a $200,000 gift, focused on
increasing organizational capacity, and we are embarking
on a strategic planning effort. We welcome visits and inquiries from anyone who shares our interest in art inspired
by birds.
Green-winged Teal Pair by A. Elmer Crowell (1862-1952).
Mass Audubon Collection, anonymous gift, 2008.
Common Sheldrake, Radjah Sheldrake by Louis Agassiz
Fuertes (1874-1927), watercolor, 1921. Mass Audubon
Collection, bequest of John Henry Dick, 1995.
c
The photographs of decoys are by David Allen, courtesy of
Copley Fine Art Auctions.
The Duck Marsh by Frank W. Benson (1862-1951), oil on
canvas, 1921. Mass Audubon Collection, gift of Agnes S. Bristol,
1972.