Bicentennial Exhibition 1976

Westport Artists of the Past

A Bicentennial Exhibition 1976 D \.. 4-c(J

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Westport Artists of the Past D

A Bicentennial Exhibition 1976

Westport Public Library, Westport, Connecticut June 12 - June 30, 1976

Thi s Exhibition and Catalog have been organized by
the Westport Bicentennial Arts Committee to celebrate a part
of the rich artistic heritage of the Town of Westport.

The Catalog:
written by William Slaughter
designed by Howard M unce
typography by Stamford Type
printed by Thrush Press
The Exhibition:
designed by Walter Einsel
Cl 976 Westport Bicentennial Arts Com mittee Westport Town Hall, Westport, Connecticut all rights reserved
The Front Cover:
J ohn Steuart Curry. "John Brown;· 1939
lent by The Metropol itan Museum of Art, New York
Arthur H. Hearn Fund 1950

8{ Introduction

A HUNDRED YEARS AGO Westport was a small village perhaps
mainly known for its o nion farming. Today people recog nize it thro ugh-
out the world as a center of creati vity and sophistication with its own
peculiar fla vor, which is certainly not of onions. What happened in
between?

I cannot tell you how I love /The canvases of Mr. Dove, ... I At first

you fancy they are built/ As patterns for a crazy quilt,/But soon you
see that they express/ An ambient simultaneousness.. .. /To show the

pigeons would not do, I And so he simply paints the coo.

Thus Bert L eston Taylor's " Post-Im pressioni sm " poked good-natured
fun at A rthur Dove of Compo Road, Westport, som e sixty yea rs ago in
the Chicago Tribune. Recently Taylor's son-in-law com m issioned

Robert L. Lam bdin , acti ve most of th is century and a longti me resident

of Greenacre Lane in Westport, on behalf of the M achiasport (M aine)
Hi storical Society to paint the fi rst nava l engagement of the Revolu-
tionary War. The coo of the abstractionist Dove years ago, and L am bdin's
realistic, B icentennial rendering of hand-t o-hand combat for M achiasport
today, suggest the extraordinary range and farfl ung impact of artistic
creativity in Westport over the yea rs.

One of the first artist s to come to Westport was Neil M itchell , painter
of seascapes, who appropriately settl ed into the O ld Mill, perhaps there
to be inspired by the ebb and fl ow of the tides beneath his fl oorboards.
T hen the Ed Ashes moved to the Cranbury area on the Westport-Norwa lk
line in the early years of thi s ce ntury. Ed's good friend George Wright
ca mped out on the A shes' place one summer and soon after the Wrights
settl ed on Cross Hi ghway. The Karl A ndersons chose a site on Narrow
Rock s Road. Anderson had served an apprenticeship with a carver of
headstones (at least accord ing to his broth er Sherwood who creat ed
Winesburg, Ohio) and then he became nationall y known for his lyrical
paintin gs, portraits and figures. The Frasers, J ames Earle and Laura
Ga rdin, sculptors, built a huge stud io on North Aven ue memorabl e to
yo ung vi sitors for an hero ic renderi ng of an equestria n Teddy Roosevelt
on safari in A frica. Nearby, illustrator Oscar Howa rd and his wife, Lila,
a sculptor, settled on the A spetuck . Fa rther up the Aspetuck the Ralph
Boyers found an o ld house. Ralph occasionall y sortied to catch a fine
trout in the river, immortalizing it in an etching before it was cooked
for supper.

Meanwhile the Ed Boyds had moved to Compo Road. A Montrealer,
Boyd had studied in Paris, was teaching in New York and painting mainly
during summers in Quebec Province. The James Daughertys moved to
Broad Street. He was a Synchromist, a muralist of distinction, a New
Yorker cartoonist, an illustrator and author of best selling children's
books. His keen sense of American history permeates much of his work,
graphic and written. A kindly man, humorous and eloquent, modest
but with a towering moral sense, he was as unique and fascinating a
human being as he was an artist. His son, Charles, and Charles's wife,
Lisa, carry on as artists in residence on Broad Street.

All these men and women, diverse as they were, admired and
encouraged each other and their work. George Wright and Karl
Anderson, nominated in the same year for the National Academy,
enthusiastically set to work painting the other's portrait (a condition of
entry). Ed Boyd could say of a George Wright etching, "My God, the
detail! With a magnifying glass you can see a church steeple on the
horizon that escapes the naked eye'.' James Daugherty could say of
Boyd, "He was a painter's painter; he solved an interesting problem in
every painting he did'.' John Vassos, the Silvermine artist, could say of
Daugherty, "Jim was dynamic. I've seen him attack a canvas with a
brush in each hand."

Everett Shinn, youngest of The Eight who moved the art world with
the Armory Show in 1913, lived in Westport for a few years at the corner
of Compo and the Post Road. A slim, elegant man, his love of the theater
and beautiful women inspired his work. Maurice and Charles Prendergast
spent a summer on Compo Road. Maurice, a post-impressionist, was one
of The Eight. Charles, his younger brother and staunch supporter, was a
wood-carver, frame-maker and painter of international reputation. After
Maurice's death Charles and his wife, Eugenie, moved to Westport
where his warmth and enthusiasm and her knowledge of the world of
dealers, galleries and museums, lent their own distinction to the life of
Westport. Garret Thew, working in metals, founded the Thew Studios,
still flourishing under the aegis of his son John. John Steuart Curry,
before he became a 20th century giant, painted exciting murals for the
then new Bedford Junior High School, now Kings Highway Elementary
School. These murals should be viewed as an extension of this show.

Dozens of other artists lived and worked in Westport, and thousands
more painting s and works could be gathered to fill a vast museum of
Westport art. The artists of this town have influenced and given graphic
expression to the tastes and styles of the nation, while at the same time
contributing vastly to the color and texture of local life. Westport-the
town made famous by its artists.

E. F. Boyd, Jr.

~ KARLANDERSON / 1874-1955 '"Girl with Pink Bows," oil, 1912. Lent by Mr. & Mrs. James Anderson.

Born in 1874, Karl Anderson had the unusual
distincti on of being recognized at the start of his
long painting career. But, as James Daugherty
once wrote about him, " Personally gratifying
as this has no doubt been to him, it has not
affected the integrity of his work ... He has
painted a long series of American portraits
which have the same depth of feeling and
sensitiveness that his brother Sherwood has
expressed in literature'.' (from Anderson
Catalog)

Anderson was a simple but not a simplistic
painter; in a time when the issues of "Art" were
argued and contended by the vehement factions
into which Anderson's contemporaries split
themselves, Anderson's own paintings
remained aloof and separate. They are true
pictures of life as the artist perceived it ra ther
than exam pl es of one theoretical school or
another. They are intelligent more than they are
intellectual, and from the heart rather than from
the spiritual fo rces and dynamics at work in
the world.

One of his most appealing portraits, that of
his wife, Helen, pa inted in 1902, is included in
this exhibition. Al so incl uded in the exhibition is
the painting "Girl with Pink Bows," a good
example of Anderson's fresh and impressionistic
style. The subject of this portrait is the young
Katherine Maddock whom many Westporters
may remember as the Katie of Greenberg's
Department Store.

Karl with his wife Helen, 1920.

8 { EDWARD FINLEY BOYD/ 1878-1964 Ed Boyd, 1940.
" Front Doors," oil , 1940. Lent by Mr. & Mrs. John Boyd.
Born in Montreal, Canada, in 1878, Edward

Finley Boyd first studied art at the Montreal Art
A ssociation under Willia m Brymner and at the
Monument National in Montreal under Edmond
Dyonnet, both members of the Royal Canadian

Academy. At the age of 24, he went to Paris to

study at the Academie Julien under the famous
French academician, J ean Paul Laurent and
there came under the influence of the art of the
Impressioni st s - particularly that of Renoir,
Cezanne and Yan Gog h. He spent four years in
Pari s before he returned to Montrea l where he
executed a number of murals and worked on
the Montrea l Star.

Boyd married Marguerite Yan Voorhi s in 191 2

and after four years of living in New York , they
moved to Westport. For twenty years Boyd
spent the school year commuting to New York
where he taught art at the Townsend Harris
High School and the summer months painting
full time. Every summer he and his wife rented
a cotta ge in the littl e town of Baie St. Paul in the
heart of French Canada for which Boyd had
conceived a lifelong love as a very young man.
The bulk of Boyd's work, hundreds of oils,
watercolors and pastels, depict scenes of this
town and th e surrounding French Canadian
countryside. "Front Doors" is a scene typi cal of
M ain Street, Baie St. Paul. Over the years many
of Boyd's artist friends visited in Baie St. Paul.
Among them were George Wright, James
Daug herty, Karl Anderson and Robert L ambdi n,
whose work is also represented in this exhibition.

Like the Impressionists, Boyd del ighted in the
study of the play of light and color over natu ral
scenes. His fascinati on with form, pattern and
color is clearly evident in "Blue Cabbages'.' The
dramatic and picturesque Laurenti an mountains
and the crystal clear atmosphere of the country
around Baie St. Paul made that area a perfect
setting for Boyd's pleinair painting. J ames
Daughert y once paid Boyd the supreme
compliment of call ing him "a New England
Yan Gog h'.'

8-{ RALPH L. BOYER/1879-1952

Born in Camden, New Jersey, in 1879, Ralph

Boyer studied art at the Pennsylvania Academy
of Fine Arts under William Merritt Chase and
Thomas Anshutz among others. He studied
abroad under the Cresson European Scholarship
and then returned to Philadelphia to become a
fellow of the Pennsylvania Academy. During
World War I, Boyer worked with the camouflage
service in Baltimore where he and J ames
Daugherty (another Westport arti st represented
in this exhibiti on) directed the painti ng of
Ameri can ships.

An ardent fisherman, Boyer is best known for
his drypoints of fish and all outdoor subjects,
but he also painted murals and illustrated many
books. His mural painted for the old Staples
High School is now on the wall of the present
Staples' library.

i JOHN STEUART CURRY / 1897-1946

John Steuart Curry wa s born on a farm near

Dunavent, Kansas in 1897. In 1916 he left hi gh

school to attend the Kansas City Art Institute,
and later the Chicago Art Institute where he
stayed for two years, supporting himself by
working at various odd jobs. After another
short stay at Geneva College in Pennsylvania ,
he gave up school altogether and went to Tenafly,
New J ersey where he worked and studied inde-
pendently under the illustrator, Harvey Du nn.
As an illustrator Curry called on his knowledge
of the West to illustrate the popular Wild West
stories of Zane Grey and others wh ich were
being publi shed serially in magazines such as
Boy's Life, Country Gentleman and The

Saturday Evening Post. In 1923 Curry married

and moved to New York, and less than a year
later to Westport.

To be an illustrator was not Curry's ultimate
ambition by any means. Coming into con tact with
James Daugherty and others whom he consid-
ered "sophi sticated" arti sts, Curry began to feel
strongly hi s own lack of forma l training and
skill. He borrowed enough money from the
banker and art patron Seward Prosser for a year
of study in Pari s. When he returned to Westport

in 1927, he resumed work as a commercial

artist in order to support his family. But after his thoroughly American of any in this exhibition.
study in France he found commercial art too "The Stockman;· for example, presents what
restrictive and so again he borrowed money in Curry saw as an ideal of conduct that goes back
order to work on his serious paintings. In 1928 to the pioneers of this country's frontier - the
"Baptism in Kansas" was exhibited in Washing- stockman as the proud individual who owned his
ton and was well received by the critics. From own farm, raised and sold vital crops, living and
this point on Curry gradually became a recog- acting as a free and independent citizen. The
nized and successful figure in American art. He subject for this painting was the artist's father.
remained in Westport until 1936 when he was Other works shown in this exhibition are
offered the position of Artist in Residence at the notable for their singular American character:
Agricultural College at the University of "Danbury Fair," 'The Flying Cadenas;· and
Wisconsin, where he stayed until his death "Norwalk Hat Industry" are all examples of
in 1946. Curry's ambition to depict the spirit of America
in all its varied and individual manifestations.
In 1934 Curry, commissioned by the Westport
Council in connection with the Federal Art A deeply religious man, Curry was motivated
Project, Curry painted murals for the auditorium by what he saw as the fundamental values of
of the King's Highway School. Two frescos, life: family, home, and religion. Perhaps because
"Tragedy" and "Comedy;· which can still be seen of his strong roots in the teachings of the Bible,
on either side of the school's stage, were among
his first murals. They contain portraits of many lower left: Curry in his Westport studio. In the background, his oil painting, "Gospel
contemporary celebrities, such as Eugene
O'Neill, Theodore Dreiser, Sherwood Anderson " Danbury Fair," lithog raph, 1930. Lent by The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
(brother of portraitist Karl), Meffert and Winifred Dodson Fund, 1935.
Johnson, Will Rogers, Charlie Chaplin, and
Westporter Rose O'Neill and her kewpie doll, in
addition to a portrait of Curry and his wife
Kathleen. In 1936 he painted "Western
Migration" and "Justice Defeating Mob
Violence" for the Department of Justice in
Washington and, in 1940, "The Tragic Prelude;·
a mural for the Kansas State Capitol in Topeka
for which the "John Brown" in this exhibition is
a preliminary study. These murals reveal Curry's
attitude towards his art. Unlike many artists, he
did not paint for the private collector but for
people as a whole. Most of his paintings are
large, intended for museums and public places
where viewers can gain from them the spirit and
feeling for the country that Curry sought to
express.

Curry was also an important figure in the
history of printmaking in this country. Six of
the works exhibited in this show - "Danbury
Fair," "Horses Running Before a Storm;· 'The
Tornado;· "Flying Cadenas;· "Prize Stallion;· and
"Sanctuary" - are lithographs. It is perhaps
further indicative of his attitude toward the
public that often (as in these six cases) Curry
would reproduce his painted images through the
medium of lithography, thus making his art
more accessible to everyone.

Along with Thomas Hart Benton and Grant
Wood, Curry was a major figure of the so-called
Regional school of art. As a movement,
Regi onalism represented a conscious attempt
to reject the cosmopolitan sophistication of the
art establishment and to get back to the grass-
roots of American culture. Curry was a natural,
never consciously aware that he was part of any
movement. "I learned that I belonged to the
Regional school of art;· he said, "long after I
had done the work as I pleased, without once
giving a thought to what 'school' it might fit'.'
Nevertheless, his paintings are perhaps the most

" The Stockman," oil , 1929. Lent by Whitney Museum of American Art.

the religion of the prophets and the wrath and
mercy of God, Curry was always deeply im-
pressed by the varying extremes of nature. This
feeling is clearly expressed in three lithographs
from the exhibition - "Horses Running Before a
Storm;· "The Tornado;· and "Sanctuary" (all of

which he executed as paintings).
In "The Tornado;· Curry exaggerated the

perspective of the image and managed to
suspend the whole scene for the moment in
which the family, in the midst of escape, looks
for a split second at the picture of their farm-
house about to be destroyed by the weird
swaying force bearing down on them from the
distance. Curry has selected neither the moment
of recognition and panic nor the moment of
ultimate destruction to portray the true drama of
the situation. Instead he has chosen the moment
in between, the supreme moment of the emotion
charging this terrifying situation. This is the
power of the picture, and Curry's great gift as
an artist. This same talent is evident in
"Sanctuary." Again Curry has chosen to depict
neither the moment of the disaster of the flood
itself nor the desperate flight before it. He has
chosen a moment of comparative calm, yet the
moment of greatest pathos and feeling. The
artist emphasizes the inexplicable mysteries of
the cruelty of nature by painting animals rather
than people - domestic animals who can have
no idea of anything except their survival, who
can only stand together on the last bit of dry
land and wait. And similarly, in "Horses Running
Before a Storm;· the characters depicted are
animals, who, unenlightened by the gift of
rea son , must fl ee from the terrible and inexplic-
able wrath of nature and of nature's God.

The painting "John Brown" is perhaps Curry's
most famous single image. Magnificent in its
melodramatic overstatement, it was originally
painted as a study for the mural in the Kan sas
State Capitol mentioned earlier. In the mural,
John Brown holds a Bible in one hand and a
rifle in the other. The painting, however, dis-
penses with thi s overt symbolism and presents
a more powerful close-up of the man. The
cropped figure resembles more a character from
the Old Testament than a participant in Ameri can
history. John Brown's furious wrath is echoed by
the tornado in the background, and the just
cause of the martyr is represented by the head
of a Negro in the foreground. The picture is
almost excessive in its direct and dramatic
presentation of theme and message.

Though he was certainly among the greatest
of the Regionalist painters, Regiona lism is but
a partial and inadequate description of the range
of John Steuart Curry's work. Whether of
Kan sas, New York , Wi sconsin or Westport,
Curry's paintings show a direct and simple
understanding of the temper of America.

"Sanctuary," lithograph, 1944. The New Britain Museum of American Art,
William F. Brooks Fund.

Daugherty in his studio, 1970. Photographed by his son, Charles. }VJAMES H. DAUGHERTY /1 889-1974
"Nash's Warehouse, " oil, 1950. Lent by Mr. & Mrs. Charles Daugherty.
In the fall of 1913, two American artists-
Morgan Russell and Stanton Macdonald-Wright
-exhibited paintings at a prominent art gallery
in Paris. Their art was new and different, based
on the idea that color was to take precedence
over form. Their aim was to create an "advanced"
and modern style of painting which they chris-
tened Synchromism. The style, touted in the
inevitable Synchromist manifestos as the
culmination of all modern aesthetics, today
may appear derivati ve of the art of Robert
Delaunay and Henri Matisse. Nevertheless, a
number of American artists in the teens and
earl y twent ies carried forth the work of these
two men to develop a style which, while by no
means completely independent of the develop-
ments of their European predecessors, was still
to have a distinctly American flavor. Significant
among these artists was James Daug herty.

Daugherty was born in Asheville, North
Carol ina, in 1889. As a boy he lived in
Washington D.C. where he fi rst studied art at
The Corcoran Art School. Later, he attended the
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts where he
wa s exposed to the painterly but traditional st yle
of Wi 11iam M erritt Chase and to the Impressionist
color theories of Hugh Breckenridge. He t rav-
elled and studied in Europe but unlike other
American painters who were also thus exposed
to European aesthetic modernism, Daugherty
was not converted to the principles of avant
garde painting until after he returned to hi s
native country.

Taking a studio on East 14th Street in New
York late in 1914, Daugherty met Arthur B. Frost
Jr. who occupied an adjoining studio. Frost had
just returned from Paris where he had been
converted to the principles of Synchromism
through his association with Patrick Henry Bruce
(one of the American painters who was part of
the Synchromist circle) and his studies with
Delaunay and Matisse. Frost quickly passed
these principles on to Daugherty who became
profoundly convinced of the possibilities of an
art based solely upon the physical and emotive
qualities of pure color. He exhibited his first
experimentations with color abstraction at the
New York Society of Independent Artists in 1917.

Daugherty moved to Westport in 1924 at the 8:( ARTHUR DOVE/1 880-1946
suggestion of another Westport painter, Ralph
Boyer, whom he had first known as a fellow The first decades of the 20th century in the
student at the Pennsylvania A ca demy. Before American art world were marked by the factions
moving here, and until World War II, Daugherty of two strong trends. One was that of The Eight,
painted a number of large murals depicting led by Robert Henri, which strove to oust the
themes of American life. He was later to look stodgy, safe style of the Academy from the art
upon this period of his career as not much more scene. The other was likewise led by a single
than an unfortunate digression. He said in a man, the photographer Alfred Stieglitz, who had
1965 interview: "Dur ing the Depression , I got a sma ll gallery at 291 Fifth Avenue, which he
involved with regional art. It was a desertion of opened in 1906, two years before the historic
this wonderful new movement, a return to first exhibition of The Eight in 1908. While
real ism and vul garity. It was time wasted'.' Henri was vehemently trying to depict the world
(from Betty Shepard article "The Artist Who as he and his fellow painters saw it, with all of
Escaped," Town Crier, August 26, 1965.) its vitality and color, its sorrow and its joy, and
Daugherty was to continue painting pictures with the raw crudity of these emotions as well
based upon the principles of color abstraction as their subtlety, Stieglitz was welcoming to his
with which he first experimented in 1914 until ga llery those artists who heralded the coming
his death in 1974. avant garde with abstract, non-objective styles
of painting. And although both Henri and
For all his dedication to non-objective art, Stieglitz were united in their opposition to the
however, he never completel y turned his back stifling restrictions of the Academy, in their
on figurative and representationa l imagery. But individual visions and pursuits, they were
he considered color and rhythm, space and opposed. Arthur Dove was one of the first
tensions the true subject of any successful artists exhibited at 291 Fifth Avenue.
picture. "Nash's Wa rehouse" is a painting which
transforms the familiar landmark on Riverside Born in Geneva, New York, in 1880, Dove was
Avenue into a strange and even exotic scene. educated at Hobart College and at Cornell. After
The use of color is typical of the vital and his graduation in 1903, he worked in New York
somewhat rough and unpredictable style that City as a freelance illustrator for Harper's,
distinguishes Daugherty and the other American Scribner' s, Collier's, Life and The Saturday
Synchromists from their European predecessors. Evening Post. But by 1907 Dove had di s-
covered in himself a devotion, not to the com-
In 1938 he wrote and illustrated his first
picture book for children, Andy and the Lion.
His book Daniel Boone won the Newberry
medal in 1940. Many more books followed, all
in all nearly a hundred, a dozen of which he
wrote as well as illustra ted.

The abstract paintings and pastel s that were
done late in his career are parti cularly close in
spirit to the early, pre-1920 Synchromist paint-
ings done during the pioneer days of abstract
art in America. "I Love You, I Love You, I Love
You" is one of many pastels that belong to this
phase. It ill ustrates the never- flagging involve-
ment of this arti st with color and hi s propensit y
for rearranging it according to his own poetic
vi sion.

"Penetration," oil, 1926. Lent by Andrew Crispo Gallery. fortable life of an illustrator, but to the often
perilous existence of a serious artist. He travelled
to Paris and was introduced to the work as well
as to the personalities of the vivid art scene of
the time. When he ret urned to America in the
spring of 1909 he met Stieglitz, to whose gallery
he brought some of his work. Dove and Stieglitz
were to develop a deep artistic as well as
personal relationship wh ich lasted the rest of
their lives.

In 1910 two rival avant garde art exhibitions
took place in New York, one by the Ashcan
Group, to which none of the artists associated
with Stiegl itz were invited, and a cha ll enging
exhibition by Stieglitz showing only the work
of artists associated with him. T he paintings
Dove showed at this exhibition were completely
non-representational. Just this single fact is
remarkable considering his limited contact with
the European avant garde and the state of the
art of painting in this country. At thi s same time
the most radical painters in Paris (the names
Picasso and Braque are the most familiar) were
experimenting with what was to be called
analytical cubism. In terms of what we now
consider "modern;· Dove was literally years
ahead of these men.

Dove ca lled his early abstract work s
"extractions;· as he felt them to be the pure
colors and forms extracted from nature through
the filter of his own inner artistic vi sion. Like
many advanced painters of the early 20th
century, Dove arrived at the purely abstract
through a process of distillation, with nature as
the original source. It is Dove's great d istinction,
as it was during his lifetime a great misfortune,
to be among the first to reach such a stage.
W ith the exception of Stieglitz and his circle,
Dove was to find very little support for his work

in th is country.
Dove moved to Westport in 1910, immediately

after the birth of his son, William, planning to
support both his fami ly and his painting through
farming. It was a harder prospect than he had
imagined and Dove often found himself working
from 4 a.m. until midnight simply to keep the
fa rm going. Needless to say, this left him little
time for painting. In 191 2 he m9ved to Beldon
Pond, another farm nearby, and t here tried to
make a living by raising chickens and vegetables.
The struggle to make ends meet, and at the
same time devote enough attention to his art,
was a constant trial to Dove, and would cont inue
to be so throughout his life.

In 1920 Dove and his wife separated. She "Westport," pastel, 1920. Lent anonymously.
remained in Westport with their son while he " Flat Surfaces," oil , 1946. Lent by The Brooklyn Museum. Dick S. Ramsay Fund.
went to live on a houseboat in the Harlem river
with the artist Helen Torr, whom he was to marry
in 1929. Despite yearly exhibitions at 291,
Dove's paintings did not sell. He moved again
to Halesite, Long Island, and then back to the
family home in Geneva and finally to Centerport,
New York in 1938. Despite all these changes
and difficulties in his life, Dove maintained a
consistently high level of productivity in his

art until his death in 1946.
Of the works in thi s exhibition, the charcoal

drawings "Tree Trunk" and "Barn Interior Ill;'
both executed during the last few years of
Dove's stay in Westport, demonstrate the way
in which the artist "extracts" from nature to
achieve an abstract distillation of an object or
scene that exists in the world. Two other
works - "Abstraction:· an oil of 1914; and
"Westport;' a pastel drawing of 1920-give an
indication of how advanced Dove's work was
when he lived in Westport. These perfectly non-
objective compositions were executed at a time
when the boldest innovators in Europe had
barely begun to experiment in abstraction. The
painting 'The Bessie of New York;' painted
during the time that Dove lived on the water,
presents a different side of Dove's art. Here, an
inanimate object is given anthropomorphic
characteristics to create the light and amusing
diversion of a bug-eyed tug boat. This good-
humored side of Dove is more consistently seen
in his collages, which, done in the latter part of
his career, incorporate various objects from the
everyday world into sometimes figurative,
sometimes purely pictorial compositions.

"Flat Surfaces;· painted in the last year of the
artist's life, shows how Dove's abstractions
progressed. The forms are much flatter than in
the earlier compositions, with large areas of
pure, unmodelled color juxtaposed. The colors
are no longer limited to the earthy hues of the
work Dove did as a young man, and include
tones that are less referential and hence more
abstract. Despite the fact that it was painted in
1946, it seems to relate more to the color
abstraction of young artists painting in the
1960s than it does to the avant garde painting
of the first half of thi s century. It demonstrates
graphically how Dove remained a bold and
independent innovator, far ahead of his
contemporaries, to the end of his life.

" The Bessie of New York," oil , 1932. Lent by The Baltimore Museum of Art.

different tradition, the tradition of Hogarth,
Daumier and George Grosz, whose art aimed
at social commentary and achieved this same
quality of conversational tone.

The atmosphere of du Bois' paintings is a witty,
mildly satirical one; he has neither the hearty
satire of Hogarth nor the vicious disgust of
Grosz nor the deep compassion of Daumier. His
is a quiet tone; he views the life of the wel l-to-do
in a calm, understated style, subtly conveying
his own opinion of theirs as a dull, meaningless
way of life in the blandness and utter uniformity
of their faces, in the preciseness of each part of
their bodies and in the stiff lifelessness of
their poses.

In the painti ng "Americans in Paris," for
example, the four women are dressed exactly
alike, are of the same height and proportions,
and although elegantly and fashionably arrayed,
are virtually without character. This same
characterlessness of the subjects can be seen in
a painting like "Cocktails" as well. Du Bois
communicates his own wry condemnation of a
particular class of society by presenting it as he
sees it, as an acute but detached observer who
lives among humanity watching, understanding
and recording its behavior on canvas with an
atmosphere of a peculiar, almost literary,
objective detachment.

The du Bois family first moved to Westport
only for the summers. In 1920 they moved into
a house on Compo Road, which ideally suited
their purposes since commuting to New York

was so convenient. Shortly after this, however,

@{ GUY PENE du 8018/1884-1958

Born in Brooklyn in 1884, Guy Pene du Bois
studied at the New York School of Art, where
one of his teachers and a great influence upon
him was Robert Henri. Henri was the leader and
organizer of the group of American artists
known as The Eight. These artists, together,
revolutionized the general trend of American
art at the beg inning of the 20th century by
turning to less refined and more vigorous sides
of New York life for subjects of their painting
and turning away from the genteel portraits
and landscapes that dominated established
art at that time. The Eight brought a new and
vigorous vision to their art by immersing them-
selves in the rich, heady, lively and seamy world
of New York.

Du Bois took his cue from this stridently
different and new form of painting but he
tempered it and suited it precisely to his own
interests and personality, as well as to his own
professional purposes. He was a writer as well
as a painter, working first as a reporter and/or
art critic for the New York American, New York
Tribune and New York Evening Post, and
eventually becoming the editor of Arts and
Decoration magazine. His paintings reflect this
background in that there is a certain literary
quality to them -the quality of commenting
upon society as well as depicting it. It is in this
respect that du Bois differs from the other
artists of his time and takes his place in a

they bought a house on Wright Street, which
became their year-round residence. Here
du Bois turned his hand to portrait painting.
The portraits of Jo Davidson and of Juliana
Force are of this period. His daughter tells a
singular story of another of these portraits,
the one of Marion Levy:

Proprietress of the Old Compo Inn, she
stood for him in all her fi nery; an ermine
coat draped over one shoulder so as not to
hide her gold lamedress, her bare arms
exposing her platinum and diamond wrist
watch and dinner rings, she also wore a
rope of pearls looped around her neck.

"As I stand here," she told Guy, " I am
worth ten grand."

Indeed, the story is that soon after du Bois
left for France, Mrs. Levy offered an unnamed
Westport painter $10,000 to doctor her portrait
so that she would look ten pounds lighter!

The du Bois house in Westport was the scene
of many gatherings of artists and literary people
in the area. Among their neighbors on Wright
Street were the F. Scott Fitzgeralds and among
their friends were Harry Davis, who did cartoons
for the pre-Luce Life magazine and Van Wyck
Brooks. The du Bois did not stay long in
Westport, thoug h; in 1924 they sold the house
on Wright Street and set sail for France.

Although du Bois never achieved the status
of a major force in American painting, still his
work is an interesting and unusual derivative
of the art of The Eight. His painting occupies a
unique position in the history of American art.

"Portrait of Marion Levy," oil, ca. 1921. Lost in the fire that destroyed
the Compo Inn.

lower left: "Portrait of a
Girl," (his daughter). oil,
1934. Lent by The Metro-
politan Museum of Art.
New York. Gift of Mrs.
Carrol l J. Post, 1942.

" Portrait of Jo
Davidson," charcoal &
gouache,ca. 1916. Lent
by Whitney Museum of
American Art.

Family Portrait, take n
before sailing for
France, 1924. Guy's
wife, Flore nce, was a
designer of children's
clothes. She is pictured
with her daughte r
Yvonne and he r son
Wi lliam .

8{ KERR EBYI 1889-1946 '~

Kerr Eby was born in 1889 in Tokyo to Canad ian J
m issionary parents. His fami ly moved to the
United States in 1907. Deciding to become an Church) and "A Connecticut Valley" are all
artist at an early age, he came to New York and examples of these pastoral etchings. Unlike th e
attended classes at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, st yle of the war pictures, these compositions are
and also studied at the A rt Students League. lig ht and linear. They have been described as
After a year he found himself almost completely "essays in the use of pure line where a minimum
broke, and so got a job as an office boy with of strokes has yiel ded a maxim um of effect."
A meri ca n Lithographi ng Company. Since his Eby also took trips to England , the South of
rigorous life of study and hard work was having France and A lgiers for fu rther subjects for his
a detrimental effect on his health, he joined a etchings.
surveying party workin g in the Hudson Bay area.
When he returned to New York a year later, he In 1943 and 1944 he accompanied the M arines
began to etch his impressions of the natural in the Pacific as an artist/war correspondent.
aspects of that area. These early copper plates Again this resulted in a seri es of drawings which
show his ski ll and instinctive genius for effective were brought out as an exhibition in 1945. In
composition. They are treated with a conscien- the forewo rd to the catalog for the exhibition,
tious regard for every detail, as well as with an
appreciation for rhythmic lines and masses. Major General Julian C. Smith wrote, "For long

At the outbreak of World War I, Eby volun- months this distinguished artist ... shared the
teered for military service and was promised a dangerous life of the Marines ... He used his art
commission. But due to bureaucratic confusion, to capture the feel ing of war and make it visible
the commission was never actually granted, to all'.'
and he enlisted, instead , in the reg ular Army.
He joined the Ambulance Corps, was transferred Kerr Eby died the next year, on November 19,
to the 40th Eng ineers and shipped off to France. in Norwalk.
He went straight to the front and remained there
to the end of the fig hti ng.

The result of this experience, bitter, moving
and profound, was a series of etchings depicting
what the war meant to those who had actually
fought it. "Rough Going;· "Artillery Train:· and
"Kiss for the Kaiser" are three examples of this
series of prints. The style is dark and tonal as
befits the subject matter. The artist effectively
uses the medium of drypoint to elicit the dark
masses and accented forms which pervade
these compositions. In 1935 Eby wrote an
essay, entitled simply "War;' to go along with an
exhi bition of t hese etchings. Alth ough it is a
short essay, it is powerful in expressing the
autho r's feelings about the Great War, and about
war in general, particularly since it was written
with the threat of a Second World War imminent.
In t his essay he has observed:

"The world today is a more savage place
than the world of 1914.... There is
immeasurably more hate and distrust ...
now and far less hope. We as youngsters
before 1914 had at least a fig hting chance
of doing what we wanted to do . . . I should
hate to be starting now. All this an inherit-
ance of war and what men d ied for. Hell!
I'd lik e to hear what they would say'.'

After World War I Eby came to Westport and
his work took on a purely pastoral quality. He
had seen and drawn war and its horrors. He felt
now that he had done enough of that and would
relax his war-taut art with etchings of nature.
T ra velling to Maine, Cape Cod and Gloucester,
he drew the scenes of nature surrounding him.
" Day's End;' " Island Winter:· "Driftway -
Moonlight;· "Turkey Hi ll" (in which Westporters
wi ll recognize the Greens Farms Congregational

above: "Kiss for the Kaiser," drypoint,
1919. Lent by The New York Public Library.

top right : "A Connecticut Valley," etching,
1936. Lent by The Metropolitan Museum
of Art. Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1940.

center: "Artill ery Train ," etching, 1919.
Lent by The New York Public Library.

lower right: " Turkey Hill," etching 1932.
Lent by The New York Public Library.

8{ JAMES EARLE FRASER/ 1876-1953

Few artists in American history were as widely

admired and financially successful during their
own lifetimes as was J ames Earle Fraser. Yet
even though the images of his work remain to
this day among the most familiar and most
visible creations of American sculpture,
Fraser's name has somehow escaped the notice
of the general public and the art world alike. It
was Fraser who designed and built one of
America's most popular "frontier" images-

the figure of an Indian slumped forward on his
exhausted horse and seeming to carry on his
shoulders the burden of his entire race as it was
forced westward with the onslaught of the white
man. A monumental version of this statue,
entitled "End of the Trail;' now stands in the
Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City,
Oklahoma. And it was Fraser who scul pted the
first truly American design for an American
coin -the Indian and the buffalo of the Indian
head nickel.

Born in Winona, M innesota, on November 4,
1876, Fraser lived in the Dakota Territory-
what was then the western frontier - for most
of his chi ldhood and early adolescence. This
background had an obvious and important
influence on all of his later work, an influence
which may be clearly seen in the "Frieze of a
Pioneer Group" which is exhi bited in this show.
His family moved to Chicago when Fraser was
in his early teens and James began his formal
studies in art at the Art Institute of Chicago in
1891. The first model for the most famous
statue of his entire career ("End of the Trail")
was sculpted in 1894 by the 18-year-old Fraser
while he was still a student at the Institute.

A t the age of t wenty, Fraser travelled to Paris
where he won first prize at the American Art
Association Exhibition in 1898and so impressed
Augu stus Saint-Gaudens that Saint-Gaudens
brought him back to the States to assist him in
t he completion of the statue of General William
T. Sherman which now stands across from the
Plaza Hotel at Fifth Avenue and 59th Street in
New York City. Fraser worked and studied with
Saint-Gaudens for four years and throug h hi s
influence was given the opportunity to sculpt
the first bust from life of President Theodore

James Earle Fraser at work in his studio on North Avenue.

" Elihu Root," bronze, 1926. Lent by The Metropolitan Museum
of Art. Gift of the Carnegie Corporation, 1929.

Roosevelt. This commission successfully
launched the young artist's career and Fraser
never wanted for lack of lucrative commissions
from that time on. The bust of Roosevelt still
stands in the chamber of the United States
Senate.

Shortly thereafter, Fraser set up his own
studio in MacDougal Alley, near Washington
Square in Greenwich Village, becoming one of
the first of a number of important artists to
move to that area of the city. Though his work
was never considered avant garde, he did
exhibit a number of pieces in the history-making
Armory show in New York in 1913. He taught
sculpture at the Art Students League from 1906
to 1911 and there met a student, Laura Gardin,
who was later to become an important artist in
her own right and Mrs. James Earle Fraser. Soon
after the Frasers were married in 1913, they
moved to Westport where they lived in a pre-
revolutionary house on North Avenue, working
in a studio across the road they designed
together. They spent their winters in New York
and their summers in the country.

Displayed in the exhibition are excellent
examples of Fraser's portrait style, his bust of
"Senator Elihu Root" and hi s "Head of a Young
Artist'.' The former was executed to the order of
the Carnegie Corporation on the occasion of the
subject's eightieth birthday in 1926. The latter
depicts a little known painter named J. Olaf
Olesen. The original study for this head was
made in 1921-22 but it was not executed in
permanent material until 1933, when it was cut
from a block of marble removed from the Milan
Cathedral during restorations.

Other important examples of Fraser's
portraiture include the statues of Albert Gallatin
and Alexander Hamilton which stand in front of
the United States Treasury in Wa shington, D.C.;
an equestrian statue of Theodore Roosevelt at
the American Museum of Natural History in
New York; a seated portrait of Benjamin Franklin
for the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia; a
standing portrait of General George S. Patton for
the United States Military Academy at West Point.
Fraser also sculpted the designs for numerous
coins and medal s of which the Indian head nickel
is the most important.

"Head of a Young Artist," marble, 1933. Lent by The
Metropolitan Museum of Art. Rogers Fund , 1933.

Lila Howard, 1917.

@:[ LILA HOWARD/1 890- "Goi ng Swimming," bronze, 1916. Lent by Mrs. Lila Howard.

Lila Howard was born in a little town near
Rutherford, New Jersey in 1890. W hen she was
twelve her family moved to Rauen, France
where Lila attended the Lycee J eanne D'Arc.
Her love for art was stimulated at this school
and by the guidance of her mother who sa w that
she was exposed to as many of Europe's cultura l
advantages as possi ble.

Upon returning to the United States, she en-
rolled in the Art Students League in New York
where she studied sculpture under Gutzon
Borglum and later under James Earle Fraser.
She also worked one summer at the Bedford,
New York studio of the well-known sculptor
A lexander Phi mister Proctor.

From the time she was seventeen, Lila
Howard supported herself through scholarships
and small jobs, and at twenty she opened her
own studio at Sixth Avenue and 50th Street.
W hile still a very young woman, she exhibited
her sculpture at the Pennsylvania Academy of
Fine Arts, the International Fi ne A rts Exhibition
at Buenos A ires and Santiago, the Panama
Pacifi c International Exposition at San Fra ncisco
and the National Academy of Design in New
York.

In 1912 she married Oscar Howard, the
illustrator, whom she had met at the Art
Students League. After frequent visits to t he
North Avenue home of the J ames Earle Frasers,
the Howards bought a house on Coleytown
Road and moved to Westport in 1918. Lila
Howard has lived here ever since.

8{ ROBERT L. LAMBDIN/1886- -

Born in Dighton, Kansas, in 1886, Robert Robert Lambdin, sketching in the woods in Maine, 1930.
Lambdin moved with his family to Denver,
Colorado, at the age of seven. He studied at " Clamm ing," o il, 1932. Le nt by Mr. & Mrs. Herbert Cohe n.
the Reid School of Art in Denver, and started his
professional career as a newspaper artist,
illustrating feature stories for the Rocky
Mountain News, the Denver Republican and
the Kansas City Star. From this training
ground he came to New York City in 1917 to
illustrate for Colliers, Cosmopolitan, Red Book
and severa l other monthly magazines. He also
put his hand to advertising and book illustration.

Lambdin settled in Westport in 1918, though
he continued to make frequent trips to the West
to paint mountain landscapes and life on the
plains. During the Depression years he was
commissioned by the WPA to paint murals in
Westport for the Saugatuck and Bedford
Elementary Schools, and won the competition
for the mural panels in the Bridgeport Post Office
-a group ofthree murals depicting the history of
mail transportation. He has had commissions
from the Bridgeport Brass Company, Beekman
Downtown Hospital in New York City and from
industrial concerns in Chicago, but his first
and favorite murals are those in the Saugatuck
school. These paintings, which were executed
above and to the sides of the auditorium doors,
depict fictional and non-fictional subjects that
range from scenes of Greek mythology to those
of American history. Other examples of
Lambdin's mural painting in Westport can be
seen in th e main branch and the Saugatuck
branch of The Westport Bank and Trust
Company. A mural depicting the landing of the
British at Compo Beach that was originally
painted for Arthur W. Wilson's home on Minute
Man Hill now hangs in the Westport Public
Library.

Of the paintings in this exhibition, "Lover's
Leap" depicts a memorable scenic spot on the
Housatonic River. The figures in the foreground
are Lambdin's wife and the wife of Edward
Finley Boyd. Both Boyd and Lambdin painted
the scene on an outing they took with their
wives in 1940. The Boyd painting , which hangs
in Miss Frances Boyd's home, is not included
in the exhibition.

Air Warden, 1942.

~ J. MORTIMER LICHTENAUER/ 1876-1966 " J ames Daugherty," oil, 1936. Lent by Mr. & Mrs . Charles Daugherty.

A native of New York of English and Bavarian
ancestry, J. Mortimer Lichtenauer studied art at
the Art Students League in New York and at the
Academie Julien in Paris. He also worked for
two years under Lucolivier Merson, a designer
of French money and famous Parisian
decorator, and spent several years studying the
old masters in Italy. He moved to Westport in
1914 and lived in a house on East State Street
designed along the lines of an Italian villa.

Primarily a painter of decorative murals and
interpretive portraits, Lichtenauer's mura l work
may be seen in the Shubert and Adelphi theatres
and the Washington Irving High School, all in
New York. His portrait of J ames Daugherty,
another Westport artist, appears in this
exhibition. He has shown his good friend
Daugherty posed before one of Daugherty's
own drawings.

~ OSSIP L LINDE/ 1871-1940

Born in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, in 1871, Ossip
Linde ca me to thi s country in his late twenties
and was naturalized in Chicago in 1900. He
settled in Westport in 1911 where he lived and
worked in a converted schoolhouse on Kings
Highway until his death in 1940.

Primarily a painter of landscapes, Linde wa s
a prolific worker and exhibited frequently in
Westport and all over the United States.
Throughout his career he travelled extensively
in Ameri ca and in Europe. A lthough his
reputation was founded upon his paintings of
landscape scenes from Venice and Bruges, he
also pa inted scenes in New England and
occasionally tried his hand at portrait and fi gure
painting and sculpture. His work is represented
in numerous public and private collections
throughout the world.

8-{ NORMAN MASON/1885-1945

8-{ BERTHOLD NEBEL/1889-1964 As a young man Norman Mason aspired to a
career as an operatic tenor. He showed a good
Born in Basel, Switzerland, in 1889, Berthold deal of talent in this field but a bathing
accident which resulted in partial deafness put a
Nebel came to the United States with hi s quick halt to his singing. It was not until Mason
mother and father while he was still a baby. He was nearly thirty years old that he had any
grew up in New Jersey and when he was premonition of his gifts as a painter.
nineteen he began to study at the Mechanics
Institute. Later he studied in New York under While working as a journalist on the Chicago
James Earle Fraser at the Art Students League. Tribune, Mason attended the Chicago Art
His evident talents and the encouragement of Institute at night. Coming to New York in pursuit
his teacher convinced him to enter the of the advertising business, he became a student
competition for the Prix de Rome, which he
won. During the subsequent three years of at the Art Students League, and, in 1919, he
study in Italy, he became immersed in and
involved with the classical, neo-classical style enrolled at the Academie Julien in Paris. There
which was to shape his life's work.
followed fifteen productive years (1919-1934)
On his return to America, in 1920, he accepted
during which Mason lived in Europe and
the position of head of the school of sculpture exhibited at the Paris Salon at the Societe des
at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, in Beaux Arts, the Salon de Tuileries and various
other galleries in Paris and other European
Pittsburgh. In 1923 he came to New York, set capitals.

up a studio of his own, and attracted the Mason moved with his family to Westport in
attention and support of a rich art patron, Archer
M. Huntington. With Huntington's help, Nebel 1935, painting here and in New York until his
began to receive commissions to design and death in 1945. The Masons lived in a house on
sculpt various public works. Most of these
commissions consisted of architectural rather North Compo Road which was called "Dingley
than free-standing sculpture, and included the Bell'.' That house is now occupied by the family
ornamentation of the dome and niches of the of Norman Mason Jr., who as a boy was the
Cunard building, the bronze doors for the subject of the portrait in this exhibition.
American Geographic Society and the Museum
of the American Indian (a matching set), and upper left: Norman Mason in France.
nine limestone panels representing Spanish
civilization for the Hispanic Society of America. Berthold Nebel at work on "The Adventure."

Nebel also executed a number of portrait ' -...","' .
statues, among which are ones of General
Joseph Wheeler for the Capitol in Washington,
John Sedgwick for the State Capitol in Hartford
and a relief portrait of Theodore Roosevelt for
the Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce; and he
designed two Congressional medals.

" World's Fair," tempera and gold leaf on composition board,
1939. Lent by Whitney Museum of American Art.

8 { CHARLES PRENDERGASTI 1863-1948 The style and character of his art were more
shaped by the decorative rhythms of Oriental
Charles Prendergast is a rare figure in the and Near Eastern pictorial ism to which Charles
history of American art. The unusual medium was first exposed as a boy in the collections of
through which he strove to express his artistic the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, by the easy
ideas sets him apart from most of the artists continuous patternings of his own gold-leafed
and craftsmen of his own generation. Yet his frames, by Maurice's gentle naturalism and
work, though historically overshadowed by that use of color, and, most importantly, by the
of his more famous older brother, Maurice, limitations and possibilities of his chosen
stands up remarkably well with the passage of medium of expression, than they were by the
time and, in the opinion of many, secures for rebell ious stance of the Ashcan School.
him a prominent position among all of the
artist-craftsmen of American hi story. "The method employed by Mr. Prendergast
in making these panels differs somewhat
Charles Prendergast was born in Boston in from the tradition. It is more than merely a
1863 and lived in New York City, sharing an flat painting and gilding on plaster ...
apartment and studio at Washington Square On the surface the outline of his cartoon is
with his brother Maurice for a large part of his transferred with charcoal, and the deeper
ad ult life. His career as an artist and craftsman lines are incised with gouges and chisels.
did not begin until 1895 when at the age of 32 Over thi s is spread several coats of gesso
and after severa l unsuccessful and unsatisfying plaster, and while this is still wet, the more
forays into more mundane fields, he started to delicate lines are traced with a fine steel
support himself t hrough the design and making point. Over such figures and details as are
of pictu re frames. His art as a painter and to be gilded is spread a second coat of
sculptor grew largely out of this craft, but it was special plaster. And when this has been
not until 1912, at the age of fifty, that Charles thoroughly dried and all roughness
Prendergast painted his first incised gesso panel removed by sandpaper and pumice stone,
and thus started his artistic career in earnest. it is ready for the application of gold and
silver leaf and color ... " (M.D.C. Crawford,
In 1925, shortly after the death of his brother, 'The Carved Gesso Panels of Charles E.
Prendergast married Eugenie van Kemme! and Prendergast," Country Life in America,
settled in Westport. They lived here until September, 1919, p. 47-49.)
Prendergast's death in 1948 at the age of 85.
Though Prendergast did not move to Westport The physical incising and carving of a li ne
until he was 62, it was nevertheless in Westport imparts a strength and rigidity that clearly
tha t the bul k of his work as a forma l artist shows through in t he final work. And the
was created. method of color application, by necessity deft
and simple, adds a measurable density and
During the time he lived in New York, weight to the painted figures.
Prendergast was very closely involved with the
newest developments in avant garde painting. Both of these qual ities are apparent in a work
Charles and Maurice Prendergast together such as "World's Fair" of 1939. So, too, in this
established a very intimate relationship with the work may be seen the Eastern influences on
members of a group that was later to become Prendergast's art. The spatial distortion, where
known as The Eight. Charles even provided a perspective is replaced by an elevation of the
number of frames for works exhibited in the background, the overa ll flatness of individual
epochal 1913 Armory show. The most important figures and of the composition as a whole, and
influences on Charles Prendergast's work, the artist's arbitrary manipulation of scale, can
however, had little to do with the early 20th be most clearly related to the art of the Orient.
century avant garde. The influence of the decorative mentality of the
carver of frames can be most clearly felt in
a work such as "Zinnias" ca. 1935. Here, a
pervasive rhythmica l patterning recalls the
graceful banding of Prendergast's early gilded
frames. And finally, in a watercolor such as
" Hil ltown in South of France" of 1927-29, we can
see the influence of the easy naturalism of
brother Maurice Prendergast's oils.

Charles Prendergast's is a lig hthearted and
non-serious expression which is, in many ways,
totally antithetical to the art of his own
contemporaries. And perhaps because of this,
his works present a simple natural primitivism
that al l can enjoy.

}8EVEREIT SHINN/1876-1953

Born into a Quaker family in Woodstown, New
Jersey, a small, slow-paced town which had
barely changed since the early 19th century,
Everett Shinn's background could not have
been more opposite to what his art reveals as
the main passions of his life. Shinn's subsequent
life and his life's work are the spirited antitheses
of his early Quaker upbringing. His love of the
flamboyant and the outrageous, however, was
early encouraged by his mother, who also
found the small town staid and stifling. She had
some money of her own, and being an
ineffectual disciplinarian, gave her children an
example of what she thought to be the joys of
life-travel, gaiety and the love of society.

At the age of fifteen Everett Shinn left
Woodstown to go to school in Philadelphia,
where in the fall of 1893, after several years of
learning mechanical drawing at the Spring
Garden Institute, he registered to take some
classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine
Arts and began to work as a staff artist with the
Philadelphia Press. Also enrolled at the
Academy at this time were William Glackens,
John Sloan and Robert Henri, all of whom were
to be Shinn's future friends and associates. All
of these other men were working as newspaper

In Central Park, New York, 1922.

"Portrait of Marian," pastel , 1921. Lent by Mr. H. Gair Chase (stepson of Eve rett Shinn and brother of Marian) .

Everett Shinn, " Trapeze, innovative, by the standards of early 20th
Winter Garden, N.Y." oil, 1903. century art, which was in " a state of staggering
decrepitude;· according to Shinn, it should be
Lent by Arthur G. A ltschul. consi dered an overwhelming achievement. The
exhi bition opened on February 3, 1908 at
artist s as well, but on different papers, and so William Macbeth Gall eries. Despite a great deal
Shinn did not come into close contact with them of snide, academic criticism, the exhibition was
at first. By 1895, however, four of them - Shinn, a success both arti stically and financially.
Luks, Glackens and Sloan - worked together on Because their art was involved with subjects
the staff of the Press, and so became friends which society at large considered less than
and mutually inspired and encouraged each lofty, their work became k nown as the Ashcan
others' deeper artistic ambitions. School.

In 1897 Shinn and the others came to New Shinn was utterly fascinated by the theater
York . Shinn worked for the New York World and and in 1899 he made the acquaintan ce of Elsie
contributed to various magazines as a free lance de Wolfe, a designer of the time, and he became
illustrator. He was fascinated and delighted by her close professional colleague. He began a
the world of fashion, by the theaters and career as pa inter of theatrica l murals and
restaurants and by the street scenes and executed a number of murals for the houses
vignettes of city life with which he was designed by his friend, the architect Stanford
constantly surrounded. These were the subjects White. He painted panels of murals for David
of his drawings and illustrations. Belasco's Stuyvesant Theater, the Council
Chamber in the Cit y Hall in Trenton, New
The art world at thi s time was a stuffy and Jersey, and in many homes of wealthy people.
stilted establishment, where the majority of After 1912, however, he did murals only on a
work being done was encrusted with traditions limited basis, mostly on the level of personal
and restraints, as was society itself. Shinn and commissions. He did return to this idiom,
the other young artists who eventually made up though, in the 1940's to do the famous murals
the famous "Eight" were at constant odds with in the men's bar of the Plaza Hotel. Shinn also
these prevai ling traditions. And it was to worked as a decorator for the movie industry.
overthrow these stolid institutions of art that the
young artist s put their fullest energy. They His love of the theater also provided Shinn
became more and more distressed by the fact with subject matter for his paintings and pastels
that their paintings were not being accepted in throughout his entire career. Of the nine works
the standard shows where art was exhibited. On
April 1, 1907, they met-Shinn, Henri, Sloan, by Shinn in this exhibition, five of them -
Glackens, Luks and Ernest Lawson - at the 'Trapeze, Winter Garden, New York;' 'The Dolly
house of Robert Henri to plan an exhibition of Sisters:· "London Music Hall;' "Girl in Red on
their own work. They were joined in this idea Stage;· and "Girl in White on Stage" - have to
by two more painters -Arthur B. Davies and do with t he theater. The joy and vitality that
Maurice Prendergast -and together formed the
group k nown as The Eight.

Althoug h by present-day standards the
paintings of these men do not seem overly

the theater seemed to epitomize made it a per- Everett Shinn,
fect foil for the rakish personality of Shinn. And, " London Music Hall," oil,
as can be seen in the examples on exhibit in 1918. Lent by The Metro-
this show, Shinn's sketchy, facile style was a per- politan Museum of Art ,
fect medium by which to convey the energy and George A. Hearn Fund,
excitement that the theater exuded. 1921 .

In 1898 when Shinn was 22, he married of reporting, and of drama, deeply and forever
Florence Scovel. This was to be the first of four ingrained in his style from his early days as a
marriages, between and during which he also newspaper artist. Shinn was extremely good
had numerous affairs and flirtations. It was this with a pencil , pen, paintbrush or pastel; he was
sensuality and earthiness, and his inordinate a facile artist but not a careful one. He was an
love and search for the perfect woman, which ambitious, over-achieving man, always in a
seem to have formed the backbone of Shinn's hurry to finish one thing and get on to his next
persona l life. The same qualities are reflected in accomplishment, eager for recognition and
his work. acclaim. His facil ity and quickness enabled him
to sweep through his work without ever examin-
It was not until shortly after his third marriage ing his subject in significant depth. It is said, for
in 1924 to a woman named Gertrude Chase that example, that the pastel "Portra it of M arian" was
Shinn moved to Westport. (Mrs. Chase is the sketched in a few hours one afternoon in 1921
subject of the pastel nude of 1925 that is shown to help the artist win the favor of Marian's mother,
in this exhibition.) Shinn lived in Westport only Gertrude Chase, whom he was courting at the
for the short duration of their marriage. When time. Shinn's critics and even his colleagues felt
the couple was divorced in 1932, the third Mrs. that he lacked a sufficient degree of seriousness
Shinn was awarded custody of the children and about his work ever to achieve true greatness
title to the Westport house, the purchase of as an artist.
which her mother had financed. Shinn's conduct
(particularly the fact that his wife posed for him His earlier paintings show the most
in the nude) was considered quite scandalous at involvement in subject matter - perhaps
the time and Connecticut papers had a field day because of his close association with artists to
with the divorce and Shinn's almost immediate whom accomplishment and glory were
remarriage to a young, twenty-one-year-old girl, secondary to their own artistic integrity. As he
Paula Downing, in 1933. Shinn and Paula moved more among theatrical and wealthy
Downing were divorced in 1942. He never patrons he became faster and smoother, but
married again, although he rema ined on fine lost that emotional and dramatic grit which had
terms with all of his four wives. so distinguished the work of The Eight. They
were painting life as they saw it, and as they
During his long career as an artist, Everett believed it was, not as a director or particular
Shinn passed through a variety of artistic styles. patron wanted it to seem. These early paintings
But in all of his work there is a certain element of Shinn differ from his later work in perhaps
the most important aspect - they are heartfelt
and excited rather than commissioned, and it is
at this early period of his life that Shinn's work
is the finest.

Sketching on Long Island Sound.

8-{ GARRET THEWI 1892-1964

Born in Sharon, Connecticut, Garret Thew one commission for a series of bronze plaques
studied at Syracuse University and at the Art illustrating the history of communication and
Students League of New York City. He also another for decorati ng the first entrance hall of
studied with J ohn Carlson in the landscape Greens Farms School. His bronze sculpture of a
painting school at Woodstock, New York and little girl (for which his daughter, Robin, was the
discussed art and exhibited locally with George model) sat beside a pool between two stairways
Bellows, Eugene Speicher and Alexander for which he designed reed-twined railings. He
Brook. He served in World War I as a painted a mural depicting flying gulls on a blue
sky on the ceiling arching over the pool. Cast
camouflage expert with the United States Army. aluminum gulls formed a hanging chandelier.
Before moving to Westport, Thew was Later, when a new wing was added to Lhe school,
the bronze figure was moved to the new
involved in directing adverti sing art and was a entrance foyer.
free lance designer. He married Elsie Greene
and moved to Westport in 1923. Soon thereafter Due to scarcity of metals for civilian use
he formed Garret Thew Studios where he during World War II, he began producing garden
created and sol d original lamp bases, custom sculpture in cement and ceramic. He returned
signs, weathervanes and sundia ls. His air-borne to pai nting several years before his death in
scu lptu res became world famous and he 1964; hi s goal was color and spontaneit y rat her
invented a new craft, Spongex, which was widely than traditional tonal perfection.
used in schools and by architects.
A contemporary local artist called him
Owing the 1930's, the WPA art project to "the M anet of Westport'.'
decorate Westport's public buildings gave him

" Mermaid," bronze, n.d.
Lent by The Westport Town

School Art Collection.

} 8GEORGE WRIGHT/1 873-1951

The son of a blacksmith, and a native of Fox
Chase, Pennsylvania, George Wright studied at
the Spring Garden Institute and at the Academy
of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. He began his career
as an apprentice lithographer, later becoming a
designer of exclusive jewelry in New York. As an
illustrator, Wright rose to the very apex of his
profession. His first drawings he sold to Century
magazine and eventually he contributed to
Harper's, Scribner's, The Saturday Evening
Post and many other publications.

Moving to Westport in 1907, Wright was
among the first artists to settle here. During the
1920's he was considered one of the top
illustrators in the country, and his work was
always in demand. He was also noted for his
watercolors, pastels and etchings. "Summer
Scene" in this exhibiti on shows his skill in
evoking a mood.

He died in 1951, having lived in Westport for
43 years.

1.
I

; -r

" Heading Home," etching, 1925.

Westport Artists of the Past D A Bicentennial Exhibition 1976

Karl Anderson James Daugherty "Sportswomen, France," 1925.
Oil on panel, 32 x 18.
"Girl with Pink Bows," 1912. "I Love You, I Love You , I Love You," 1967. Lent by the Graham Gallery, N.Y.
Oil on canvas, 30 x 28. Pastel on paper, 16Y2 x 223/4.
Lent by Mr. & Mrs. James Anderson. Lent by Mr. & Mrs. Charles Daugherty. Kerr Eby

"Portrait of Mrs. Anderson," 1902. " Nash's Warehouse," 1950. "Artillery Train," 1919.
Oil on canvas, 34 x 39. Oil on canvas, 22 x 32%. Etching, 41o/i.6 x 13%.
Lent by Mr. & Mrs. James Anderson. Lent by Mr. & Mrs. Charles Daugherty. Lent by The N.Y. Public Library, N.Y.

Edward Finley Boyd Arthur Dove " A Connecticut Valley," 1936.
Etching, 7 % x 153,iJ .
"Blue Cabbages," 1935. "Abstraction," 1914. Lent by The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Pastel, 18Y2 x 19. Oil on canvas, 22 x 18.
Lent by Mr. & Mrs. John Boyd. Lent by Terry Dintenfass, Inc., N.Y. N.Y. Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1940.

"Front Doors," 1945. "Abstraction Ill," 1946. "Day's End," n.d.
Oil on canvas, 16 x 20. Watercolor, 4 x 3. Etching, 9 x 15Y2 .
Lent by Mr. & Mrs. John Boyd. Lent anonymously. Lent by The New Britain Museum of

" House at Old Mill Beach," 1923. "Barn Interior Ill," 1917-20. American Art, New Britain.
Watercolor, 283/4 x31Y2. Charcoal, 20Y2 x 17.
Lent by Mr. & Mrs. John Boyd. Lent by Terry Dintenfass, Inc., N.Y. " Driftway - Moonlight," 1931.
Etching, 85/e x 15Y2.
Ralph Boyer " The Bessie of New York," 1932. Lent by The N.Y. Public Library, N.Y.
Oil on canvas, 28 x 40.
"Boat in the Marsh," n.d. Lent by The Baltimore Museum of Art, " Island Winter," n.d.
Etching, 17 x 15Y2. Etching, 8 % x 15Y4.
Lent by Mrs. Lila Howard. Baltimore. Lent by The New Britain Museum of

"The Willow," n.d. " Flat Surfaces," 1946. American Art, New Britain.
Etching, 14 x 14. Oil on canvas, 27 x 36.
Lent by Mrs. Ralph Boyer. Lent by The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, "Kiss for the Kaiser," 1919.
Drypoint, 9o/i. 6 x 85/s.
John Steuart Curry Dick S. Ramsay Fund. Lent by The N.Y. Public Library, N.Y.

"Blue Cornflowers," 1930. " Penetration," 1926. " Rough Going," 1919.
Oil on canvas, 19 x 24. Oil on canvas, 18Y2 x 22. Drypoint, 83/e x 11 l o/i,6 •
Lent by Mr. & Mrs. Harold Von Schmidt. Lent by the Andrew Crispo Gallery, N.Y. Lent by The N.Y. Public Library, N.Y.

"Cafe Scene," 1920. " Tree Trunk," 1917-20. "Turkey Hill," 1932.
Pastel, watercolor, & charcoal, 16Y2 x 21 Y2. Charcoal, 20Y2 x 17. Etching, 93/4 x 16Y2.
Lent by the Graham Gallery, N.Y. Lent by Terry Dintenfass, Inc., N.Y. Lent by the N.Y. Public Library, N.Y.

"Danbury Fair," 1930. "Westport," 1920. James Earle Fraser
Lithograph, 13 x 93/4. Pastel, 8 Y2 x 1OY2.
Lent by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Lent anonymously. "Frieze of Pioneer Group," n.d.
Plaster model, 21 x 24.
N.Y., Dodson Fund, 1935. Guy Pene du Bois Lent by Mr. & Mrs. Stevan Dohanos.

"The Flying Cadonas," 1933. "Americans in Paris," 1927. "Head of a Young Artist," 1933.
Lithograph, 14x10. Oil on canvas, 283/4 x 36%. Rosato di Milano marble, h. 16Y2.
Lent by Mr. H. Gair Chase. Lent by The Museum of Modern Art, N.Y. Lent by The Metropolitan Museum of Art,

" Horses Running Before a Storm," 1930. "Billboard ," 1920. N.Y., Rogers Fund, 1933.
Lithograph, 9Y2 x 13Yi_6 . Oil on panel, 20 x 25.
Lent by the Whitney Museum of American Lent by the Graham Gallery, N.Y. "Senator Elihu Root," 1926.
Bronze, h. 17%.
Art, N.Y. "Cocktails," 1945. Lent by The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Oil on canvas, 29 x 36.
"John Brown," 1939. Lent by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, N.Y. Gift of the Carnegie Corporation.
Oil on canvas, 69 x 45.
Lent by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, N.Y., George A. Hearn Fund. Lila Howard

N.Y., Arthur H. Hearn Fund, 1950. " Juliana Force at the Whitney Studio Club," "Going Swimming," 1916.
1920. Oil on wood, 20 x 15. Bronze, 18 x 7V2.
" Norwalk Hat Industry," n.d. Lent by Mrs. Lila Howard.
Pencil & red wash, 15Y2x13. Lent by the Whitney Museum of American
Lent by Lyman Allyn Museum, New London, Art, N.Y., Gift of Mr. & Mrs. James S. "Portrait Head of Jamie," 1927.
Adams in memory of Philip K. Hutchins. Bronze, 15 x 5 with pedestal.
Gift of Frances Wayland Williams, 1947. Lent by Mrs. Lila Howard.
"Morning, Paris Cafe," 1926.
"Prize Stallion," 1938. Oil on canvas, 36% x 283/4. Robert Lambdin
Lithograph. 13 x 8:Y4. Lent by the Whitney Museum of American
Lent by The New Britain Museum of "Clamming," 1932.
Art, N.Y. Oil on canvas, 34V2 x 30.
American Art, New Britain, William F. Lent by Mr. & Mrs. Herbert Cohen.
Brooks Fund. " Portrait of a Girl," 1934.
Oil on canvas, 20 x 16. " Lover's Leap," 1940.
"Sanctuary," 1944. Lent by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Oil on canvas, 16 x 20.
Lithograph, 113/4x153/4. Lent by Mr. & Mrs. John Boyd.
Lent by The New Britain Museum of N.Y., Gift of Mrs. Carroll J. Post, 1942.
J. Mortimer Lichtenauer
American Art, New Britain, William F. " Portrait of Jo Davidson," 1916. "James Daugherty," 1936.
Brooks Fund. Charcoal & gouache, 21 V4 x 17% Oil on canvas, 31 x 26.
Lent by the Whitney Museum of American
"The Stockman," 1929. Lent by Mr. &Mrs. Charles Daugherty.
Oil on canvas, 52 x 40. Art, N.Y.
Lent by the Whitney Museum of American "Parisian Model," 1940.
" Promenade," 1914. Oil on canvas, 26% x 18.
Art, N.Y. Pencil, 13Y2 x11%. Lent by Mrs. Rose Miro.
Lent by the Whitney Museum of American
"The Tornado," 1932. Ossip Linde
Lithograph, 11 x 15. Art, N.Y.
Lent by Mr. & Mrs. Herbert Cohen. "Grand Canal in Venice," 1930.
"River Scene," 1920. Oil on canvas, 38 x 46.
Oil on canvas, 25 x 31 Y2. Lent by Mr. & Mrs. Jean lnglessis.
Lent by Mr. & Mrs. Theodor Muller

Norman Mason PRISM '76
"The Canal," 1932.
Oil on wood panel, 12Y2 x 9. The Westport Bicentennial Arts Commi ttee for
Lent by Mr. & Mrs. Norman Mason, Jr.
Westport Artists of the Past
"Portrait of the Artist's Son," 1930.
Oil on canvas, 15Y2 x 12Y2. -~~>--·-
Lent by Mr. & Mrs. Norman Mason, Jr.
Marianne Liberatore, Chairman
Berthold Nebel Donna Re isner, Co-Chairman
"The Adventure," n.d. Lee Scharf, Co-Chairman
Bronze, 16Y2 x 53/.i - base 135/e.
Lent by Mrs. George White & Mr. Emil Nebel. Jane Anderson
Lee Bemus
Charles Prendergast Jean Boyd
Ina Bradley
" Hilltown in South of France," 1927-29. Beth Brink
Watercolor, 15% x 19Y2. Doris Cramer
Lent by Mr. & Mrs. John Boyd. Mollie Donovan
Walter Einsel
"Kneeling Figure," 1940. Mary Fleming
Woodcarving, h. 8. Margaret Hart
Lent by Dr. & Mrs. Harold Genvert. Ann Jewett
Frank Koste
" World 's Fair," 1939. Alberta Lamb
Tempera & gold leaf on composition board, Alexander Land
Shirley Land
24 x 27Y2 . Lent by the Whitney Museum of Howard Munce
American Art, N.Y. Eve Potts
Ellen Ritter
"Zinnias," 1935. Jeri Skinner
Oil on wood panel, 15 x 24. William Slaughter
Lent anonymously. Molly Wilson
Edna Yergin
Everett Shinn
" Dolly Sisters," 1916. Other members of the
Pastel, 8x12. Westport Bicentennial Arts Committee:
Lent by Mr. H. Gair Chase.
Heida Hermanns
" Girl Dressing ," 1906. George Jewett
Crayon on paper, 15Y2 x 1OY4. Barbara Kaye
Lent by the Whitney Museum of American Joan Lasner
Walt Reed
Art, N.Y.
sponsored by
" Girl in Red on Stage," n.d. the Town of Westport Bicentennial Committee
Oil on canvas, 17Y2 x 20.
Lent anonymously.

" Girl in White on Stage," 1913.
Pastel, 14Y2 x 20.
Lent by Mr. H. Gair Chase.

" London Music Hall," 1918.
Oil on canvas, 10 x 12.
Lent by The Metropolitan Museum of Art,

N.Y., George A. Hearn Fund, 1921.

" Nude," 1925.
Pastel, 17Y2 x 11 .
Lent by Mr. H. Gair Chase

" Paris Street Scene," 1902.
Pastel, 16 x 28.
Lent by Mr. H. Gair Chase.

" Portrait of Marian," 1921 .
Pastel, 17Y2 x 29.
Lent by Mr. H. Gair Chase.

" Trapeze, Winter Garden, N.Y.," ca. 1903.
Oil on canvas, 19Y2 x 23Ye .
Lent by Mr. Arthur G. Altschul.

Garret Thew
"Mermaid," n.d.
Bronze, h. 24.
Lent by The Westport Town School Art

Collection, Westport.

George Wright
" Baie St. Pau l," ca. 1925.
Etching, 15 x 17Y2.
Lent by Mr. Frank Boylan.

" Summer Scene," 1930.
Pastel, 21 Y2 x 24%.
Lent by Mr. & Mrs. Herbert Cohen.

The exhibition

and catalog of

"Westport Artists of the Past"
have been made possible
by a grant from

The Connecticut Commission on the Arts
by support from The Town of Westport
and by the generous contributions and assistance of

Mr. & Mrs. John Abdalian Mrs. B. E. Lans
Mr. Mason Adams Mrs. Margaret Latrobe
Dr. Irwin Lebish
Mr. & Mrs. Herbert E. Baldwin Mr. & Mrs. Mortimer Levitt
Miss Ruth Bedford Mr. & Mrs. Nicholas Liberatore
Mr. & Mrs. Arnold Bernhard Little Professor Book Center
Mr. Edward F. Boyd, Jr. Mrs. Edwin Malloy
Mr. & Mrs. Frank Boylan Dr. Edgar Mayhew
The Brewster Corporation of Old Saybrook Mr. &Mrs. David Mikhael
Mr. & Mrs. Granville Brumbaugh Mr. & Mrs. Sidney Milwe
Mr. George Cardozo Mr. Howard Munce
Connecticut National Bank Mr. & Mrs. Henry Munroe
County Federal Savings and Loan Association The Paint Bucket
Mr. Charles Daugherty People's Savings Bank
Downtown Merchants Association of Westport Mrs. William Reddig
Mr. Robert Duffy The Remarkable Book Shop
Mr. Walter Einsel Mrs. Leonora Scharf
Fairpress Mr. & Mrs. Robert Slaughter
A Friend Mr. William Slaughter
Mr. Robert Fuller Stamford Typesetting Corp.
Mr. Lester Giegerich Thrush Press
Gilbert's Frame Shop To rno Lu mber and Hardware, Inc.
Glendinning Companies, Inc. Mr. & Mrs. David Vance
Dr. & Mrs. Theodore Gluckman WDJF and WMMM
Mr. & Mrs. Julius Gold Welch's Hardware, Inc.
Mr. & Mrs. Nat Greenberg Mr. & Mrs. Joseph Wertheim
Greens Farms Bookstores Westport Bank & Trust Company
Mrs. Lee Gustafson Westport Nat ional Bank
Mrs. Heida Hermanns The Westport News
Klein's of Westport