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| Charles C. Curran, The Artist at Work,
1887 |
Artists have been drawn to Cape Ann by the quality of its light and
air, the rugged power of its granite outcroppings and quarries, the drama
of its coastline where promontories give way to sheltered coves....and the
vitality of its fishing industry.
It can be argued that Samuel de Champlain was the first artist to visit
Cape Ann. In 1606, he sat somewhere on Gloucester’s Rocky Neck (an art
colony since the 19th century) and drew his impressions of the harbor. He
called it le beau port, and the artists who followed seemed to agree that
it was indeed a beautiful harbor.
Some of the Museum’s earliest paintings are 18th century portraits by
Benjamin Blythe and Gilbert Stuart. Other portrait artists followed:
Susanna Paine (1792-1862), Alfred Wiggin (1823-1883), Charles Hopkinson
(1869-1962) and Cecilia Beaux (1855-1942). All are represented in the
Museum’s collections.
But in the end, it is maritime and landscape art, rather than
portraiture, that predominate on Cape Ann. The best known of Cape Ann’s
19th century artists is maritime luminist
Fitz Henry Lane. The Museum’s collection
of his work is the largest in the world.
By the turn of the century, more artists were visiting Cape Ann. Many
of the 20th century artists came as summer
visitors from New York. After his first visit to Cape Ann in 1915,
American artist Stuart Davis wrote:
I went to Gloucester, Massachusetts on the enthusiastic
recommendation of John Sloan. That was the place I was looking for. It
had the brilliant light of Provincetown, but with the important
additions of topographical severity and the architectural beauties of
the Gloucester schooner.
Artists still come in large numbers. Many painters and sculptors stay
to make Cape Ann their permanent home or summer residence.
The Museum has placed itself at the heart of this arts tradition,
exhibiting work by Cape Ann artists from all periods, including the
present. Through its permanent collections and special exhibitions, the
Museum explores the connection between artists and place, examining how
Cape Ann affects the artists it attracts and how those influences carry
over in a broader sense to the history of art in America. |
