My View of Life on the Dock
Helpful tip! Did you know if you have a question or concern about a property in Gloucester (construction, zoning, demo, abutter, safety, compliance, etc.) and you call the building department, there is no record until you fill out a form? Any concern is noted when this form is filled out, dropped off, and emailed.
Edward Hopper’s sketch of the fast schooner Columbia was completed in Gloucester in 1923 or later: Columbia was built in Essex and launched in 1923. The Hopper drawing annotated ‘Britania’ is a misspelling. The Prince of Wales (future King Edward) commissioned the racing yacht (a cutter) Britannia in 1892. The racer was retooled several times.
Hopper traveled in the UK and Gloucester. It’s likely he saw Columbia in person in 1923 or on later Gloucester visits. If not he saw both boats reproduced in print and in the news. Gorgeous yacht and race photography was popular and circulated widely especially as marine photography advanced.
For Britannia, see British photographers, Alfred Beken and his son, Frank, who settled and worked in Cowes on the Isle of Wight from 1888 on.
For the fishing schooner Columbia see Boston photojournalist, Leslie Jones, collection Boston Public Library.
After 1923, news in the the 1920s: Britannia was racing regularly and Columbia and her crew disappeared in 1927.
Continue here for more Hopper boats in Gloucester.
Incomparable American photographer and boat fanatic–as much as Hopper–Boston based photojournalist, Leslie Jones
Images: Edward Hopper, Columbia, 1923. Whitney Museum. (Choppy and clouds- possibly sketched while here in Gloucester); Edward Hopper, Britania (sic), date unknown conjectured juvenalia, however he sketched yachts and boats from his youth on. Whoever annotated the sketch misspelled the boat. [Collection Whitney Museum of American Art]
Image: 2023. Columbia in Gloucester Harbor: (will add in soon)
A replica of Columbia launched in 2014 is a showstopper at the Schooner Festival in Gloucester, MA. see easternshipbuilding.com
Aug.* September 3, 2023 Blooms, crowds, sails. Views from Stacy Boulevard and vicinity. Sky at times hazy smoky from wildfires as has been common during this summer.
*typo update–or clearly wishing for more summer 🙂
Here they come! Good number of boats!
Great to see!
Photo: C. Ryan. Lofty repairs lifting spirit, Our Lady of Good Voyage, 143 Prospect St., Aug. 31, 2023. Gloucester, Mass.
upcoming special event September 16, 2023
Mark your calendars: Jane Deering shares the announcement for an upcoming debut at Annisquam Village Church.
Lobster Cove String Quartet debuts at historic Annisquam venue
Gloucester, MA – The Lobster Cove String Quartet makes its debut
Saturday evening, September 16, 2023 at 7:30pm.
The white walls of the historic Annisquam Village Church will become
the canvas for a soundscape of swirling tone-colors, as the Gloucester-based
group presents To Paint the Night: a diverse bill of fare showcasing the richness
and versatility of the string quartet format.
The program opens with Astor Piazzolla’s fiery Four for Tango, before
probing the dark night of the soul which is Dmitri Shostakovich’s String
Quartet No. 8—dedicated by the composer “to the victims of fascism and
war.” Thelonious Monk’s ‘Round Midnight, newly arranged for quartet by
violinist and composer Scott Moore, is all blues and purples and grays:
lush, playful, and mysterious. The concert closes with the sensual
Impressionism of Claude Debussy’s radiant String Quartet in G minor.
The Lobster Cove String Quartet is the latest creation of Scott Moore, Artist-in-
Residence at the Annisquam Village Church. Moore is joined by members
Erica Pisaturo (violin), Brandon White (viola), and Alex Fowler (cello).
Admission is by donation ($35 suggested), and a reception with the artists
will follow the performance.
news from Annisquam Village Church
Annisquam Village Church. 820 Washington Street. Gloucester MA
September 1, 2023
Gloucester’s Main St. Block Party traditions: Soccer boosters had a table and the mini turf for future soccer players to kick and play.
GHS Fishermen Athletics varsity soccer opening games 2023 vs. Salem September 6, 2023 (Boys at Home Newell New Balance/ Girls Away )
There’s a new Winslow Homer mural at the bend of Maplewood and Poplar on the former Linsky’s service station property, Cape Ann Auction headquarters since November 2022.
159 Maplewood Avenue, Gloucester, Mass. Read more about this Studio fresh mural project inspired by Homer’s works here (Awesome Gloucester).
Both Breezing Up (A Fair Wind) and The Flirt depict figures in a cat boat in Gloucester harbor.
Image: Winslow Homer (1836-1910), The Flirt, 1874, oil on panel, National Gallery of Art acquisition, 2014 (Mellon collection)
Image: Winslow Homer, Breezing Up (A Fair Wind), 1873-1876, oil on canvas. National Gallery of Art acquisition (Wildenstein Gallery), 1943. Gift of the W. L. and May T. Mellon Foundation.
The Winslow Homer marker on the corner of Dale Ave & Main for Gloucester’s HarborWalk features Breezing Up (A Fair Wind) thanks to permission from the National Gallery of Art.
Author’s Note: From the National Archives collection, this contemporaneous 20 minute highlights newsreel covers the sights and sounds from the historic March On Washington for Jobs and Freedom, distributed in 1964. In 2021, I timestamped the music splits, and identified the speakers and performers included in this particular POV reel. (Still missing a few. Can you help?) Re-sharing on this 60th milestone anniversary Aug. 28, 2023.
video title: The March on Washington, 1964 film by the US Information Agency compilation for overseas from the National Archives and Records Administration collection (20 min)
Among the speakers and performers on the program (* appear in film clip):
Marian Anderson, Josephine Baker, Joan Baez* (audio early, then w/video 9:38-10:26), Harry Belafonte, Dr. Eugene Carson Blake* (16:59-17:28), Bobby Darin, Ossie Davis* (but only when he introduces Burt Lancaster 10:27), Ruby Dee (co-emcee with Ossie Davis), Bob Dylan, Freedom Singers* with choir (We shall not be moved 7:14 – 9:06), Dick Gregory, Martin Luther King Jr.* (18:18 – 18:59 press conference), Lena Horne, Mahalia Jackson, Eva Jessye Choir* (12:41 Freedom is the thing we’re talking about – Yolanda Clarke on organ), Burt Lancaster* (traveled from Paris to speak, 10:35-12:02), John Lewis* (video only – standing behind Reuther 17:29), Dr. Benjamin Mays* ( 14:34-15:36 benediction), Odetta, Peter Paul & Mary* (clips & audio of Blowin in the wind and If I had a hammer 3:18-4:33 first set), Asa Philip Randolph* (16:16-16:57 and again intro MLK 18:18), Bayard Rustin* (12:11 video only); Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth* (9:08- 9:27), Walter Reuther* (17:29-18:16), Camilla Williams (stepped up for the National Anthem; with the big crowds, Marian Anderson was too late, and would sing later in program. Williams famous, too, and worked with Jessye on Porgy & Bess.), Roy Wilkins* (13:41-14:28) and Josh White.
Opens with crowd walking and singing “we stay home and you’ll be gone…jail for more than a week, all I had was beans to eat…because my home is Danville” **Can you identify this song?**
Parade and marching band 4:34-5:40.
Eva Jessye Choir at 7:14-9:06 with Freedom singers “We shall not be moved” and later “Freedom is the thing we’re talking about” where Eva Jessye herself can be seen directing from back. Can you help identify the soloists- the gorgeous baritone, Robeson-esque at 12:36, and at 18:69 a stunning soprano soaring “We shall overcome” choir version, with crowd? The Eva Jessye Choir was the official choir for the March on Washington. Her long and storied career took off as chorus director for the Virgil Thomson and Gertrude Stein opera, “Four Saints in Three Acts” in 1934 and Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess” the following year. She worked with Marian Anderson, Paul Robeson and more.
Among the notables marching with the crowd and/or mingling with dignitaries and speakers already mentioned above: Faye Anderson, Josephine Baker, James Baldwin, Leon Bibb, Marlon Brando, Diahann Carroll, Tony Curtis, Bobby Darin, Sammy Davis Jr., Tony Franciosa, James Garner, Charlton Heston, Kiyoshi Kuromiya, Joseph Mankiewicz, Rita Moreno, Gordon Parks, Paul Newman, Rosa Parks, Gregory Peck, Sam Peckinpah, Sidney Poitier, Jackie Robinson, Bill Russell, Robert Ryan, and Joanne Woodward. Senators present: Phillip Hart (D-Mich), Wayne Morse (D-OR), William Proxmire (D-WI), and Mayor Wagner (NYC).
King delivered an earlier iteration of the sermon in Detroit, orchestrated by Rev. C.L. Franklin, Aretha Franklin’s father. During the march, news spread that W. E. B. DuBois died the previous night in Ghana. So much hope and progress, and mere weeks later, retaliation. The Birmingham Baptist church bombing was on September 15, 1963. Within five years of the March on Washington, Malcolm X and King were killed.
“We’re going to march. We’re going to walk together. We’re going to stand together. We’re going to sing together. We’re going to stay together. We’re going to moan together. We’re going to groan together and after a while, we will have freedom, freedom, and freedom now. And we all shall be free.”
Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth not formally asked for the program but asked to speak that day, one of many adjustments on the fly, rose to the occasion, primed the crowd
National Archives description of the film (added 2009 and still as of 2021):
“ARC Identifier 49737 / Local Identifier 306.3394. Scenes from Civil Rights March in Washington, D.C., August 1963. People walking up sidewalk; gathering on Mall, standing, singing. Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, crowd gathered on the Mall. People marching with signs, many men wearing UAW hats. People at speakers podium, men with guitars. Crowds outside of the White House, sign: The Catholic University of America. Band, people marching down street. Many signs, including All D.C. wants to vote! Home Rule for DC; Alpha Phi Alpha; and Woodstock Catholic Seminary for Equal Rights. Lincoln Memorial with crowds gathered around reflecting pool. People singing and clapping at speakers platform. Signs, people clapping. Man speaking, woman playing guitar and singing at podium. More speakers and shots of the crowd. A chorus, NAACP men in crowd. Close-ups of people in crowd with bowed heads. Shots taken from above of White House. More speakers, including Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Women at podium singing We Shall Overcome. Crowd swaying, singing, holding hands.”
1963 GORDON PARKS COLOR PHOTOGRAPH
photo: installation view at The Cooper Gallery Harvard, Gordon Parks exhibition 2019 by C. Ryan — Parks’ photo journalist and cinematic chops in this sea of us momentous moment, March on Washington, 1963, view from Lincoln Memorial to Washington Monument. [*Lincoln designed by Daniel Chester French unveiled 1922; Washington Monument designed by Robert Mills; completed by Thomas Casey and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, dedicated 1884.] For more about Gordon Parks work in Gloucester, Mass. see 2012-14 here
[photographer Thomas J. O’Halloran, aerial view of marchers, from the Lincoln Memorial to the Washington Monument, at the March on Washington, 1963, Library of Congress.]
Illustrations: The short story, Lassie Come-Home by Edward Knight with illustrations by Arthur D. Fuller*, was an instant must-read-and-share when it was first published in the popular magazine, The Saturday Evening Post on December 17, 1938. Edward Hopper painted Cape Cod, Evening in 1939. *The illustrator’s signature is tough to read without the credit beneath the byline. (Scroll down to see and read the story pages or to print a PDF. It’s a great read!)
You may know the memorable and unbreakable bond of the boy and his dog which Lassie Come-Home describes, and the small and epic journeys.
The short story, Lassie Come-Home by Edward Knight with illustrations by Arthur D. Fuller, was an instant must-read-and-share when it was first published in the popular magazine, The Saturday Evening Post on December 17, 1938.
Edward Hopper painted Cape Cod, Evening in 1939.
The short story is set in England and opens with a small family of three in recurring and searing pain: Two parents who have fallen on hard times and are under great emotional strain struggle to comfort their only child because they sold the family dog. Their beautiful collie, “Lassie”, is so devoted to their son, the dog runs away from the new owner straight back to the boy over and over again. Under the circumstances, any and every solution is untenable. His parents’ misplaced anger, adult exchanges, and silence confuse the boy. Their anguish and love is palpable.
Out of desperation, Lassie is removed to Scotland which they believe will be an insurmountable distance to cover.
It’s not. And no wonder a legend is born!
The first Lassie novel was published in 1940. Swift adaptations followed. It’s easy to see how the story resonated with American audiences during the Great Depression, even perhaps the great American artist, Edward Hopper.
If not Lassie herself, it’s tempting to consider the intergenerational communication and couple dynamics explored in Knight’s story as themes Hopper noticed, too.
“…Then they heard his opening of the door and the voice stopped and the cottage was silent. That’s how it was now, the boy thought. They stopped talking in front of you. And this, somehow, was too much for him to bear. He closed the door, ran out into the night, and onto the moor, that great flat expanse of land where all the people of that village walked in lonesomeness when life and its troubles seemed past bearing…”
Lassie Come-Home, Edward Knight, The Saturday Evening Post, 1938 Dec. 17
Both used punctuation in titles. Knight offset the story’s title with a vital hyphen, Lassie Come-Home (command-comfort) that might have caught Hopper’s attention. Hopper used commas often for emphasis–as in Cape Cod, Evening.
Beyond the Great Depression, 1938 may have appeared especially distant, simpler, on first pass. Yet, with international tensions rising year by year and the horrors of WWI just a generation past, neither 1938 nor 1939 were simple. Jan Struther, another UK author, broached topics of peacetime, lengthy stasis, and looming loss in the popular Mrs. Miniver pieces, published in The Times London newspaper (1937-39 ), at the same times as Lassie. Reader’s Digest distribution was international beginning in 1938.
In Cape Cod, Evening 1939, Hopper’s dog reacts, hears something, like a whippoorwill, or so the story goes. (Lloyd Goodrich’s Hopper bio, 1971; also Gail Levin, 1995) Levin’s book takes time to introduce the reader to Hoppers’ friends, and so we understand the grief from the loss of their friend Harriet Jenness who died “in early July of 1939. It was she who had firmed up the Hoppers’ courage to build in the first place and provided a roof till theirs was done.” (Levin, 1995.)
Cape Cod, Evening is constantly changing because it’s laden with enigmatic motifs. It’s late summer and fall. Unsettling and calm. Are the man and woman taking a momentary break together (as with the son and father walking in the Lassie story) or engaged in a forced desist (as with the parents going silent in the Lassie story)? Active fight or passive summer ennui? And what about that evergreen Hopper forest at the edge? Is it a cool and reachable retreat? Are the trees leaning, falling? Is the sea of dry grass sunlit and waving or scorched and still? And why no path? The man and woman are lost in thought. Worried? Families will have to have difficult conversations. Some won’t return. And what about the significance of that star dog with the striking fur?
Hopper was 35 at the onset of WWI, registered, but not called for duty. He was 57 in 1939.
Edward Hopper paintings dated 1939: Bridle Path (Bruce Museum of Art, CT), Ground Swell ( NGA collection), Cape Cod, Evening (NGA collection), and New York Movie (MoMa). As a group, they make a strong case that Hopper was thinking about 1939 in 1939.
Edward Hopper and Jo Hopper were on the Cape when war broke out.
On August 29, 1939, friends dropped by their summer home in Truro and Jo Hopper noted in her diary how the woman said, “…She’d been to England last week. Said they all prepared for war—everyone has his funkhole ready for an air raid.” On August 30 she added “E.” went to town on errands and picked up a magazine:
“Augu. 30. Still raining. After lunch E. went to P.O. & bought back kerosene, Readers Dig, postcard from Ginny at fair + the note from D R.—to see us Sept. 18 at 11. Onion soup & banana salad for lunch & tummy ache over dishes. E. so tired. Standing up at canvas. Canvas seems standing still. But I’ve seen that happen before…”
Josephine N. Hopper, Aug. 30, 1929 diary page. Provincetown Art Museum Collection, 2016. “Donation by Laurence C. and J. Anton Schiffenhaus in honor of their mother Mary Schiffenhaus (a close and personal friend of Josephine and Edward Hopper)”
On September 1, 1939 Germany invaded Poland, and England and France declared war on Germany just two days later.
On September 3, Jo mentions art and war :
“…E’s 2 canvases*. Sailboat without sky as yet. Tonight Bertha Frank & Edgar Cobb came up to say good bye for the season. Everyone else in Truro had their supper dishes washed—but we hadn’t begun yet. E. was still working when they arrived. He’s been plenty interrupted today. We didn’t swim—it looked so cold. Ginny said not cold but very dirty + water full of pink jelly fish.
So war is declared today & yesterday we saw that over into Poland. E. had a Times yesterday & we saw that. How Nat. news dwarfs everything. Why Pittsburgh festivities. Why anything. E. said he could drive an ambulance. I hope not. We most of everything need to get well…”
Josephine N. Hopper, Sept. 3, 1939. *Ground Swell and Cape Cod, Evening
Examples of dogs in famous visual arts and letters abound before Lassie. During WWI, the soon to be famous german shepherd puppy Rin Tin Tin was rescued from the battlefield by Lee Duncan, and brought back to the United States. He was trained exceptionally well then on a hunch for the Silent Movie era. The original Rin Tin Tin’s first Hollywood movie was a bit part in 1922. He starred in so many box office hits, when he died in 1932 his death ‘stopped the presses’. Generations of Rin Tin Tin descendents followed, representing his public legacy if not his agility and acting chops. Other shepherds were used in later vehicles. For more about Rin Tin Tin’s global fame and impact and Duncan’s life–he did not trademark the name– see Susan Orleans biography, Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend. (Also her short piece The Dog Star, New Yorker, Aug. 2011 and a preview excerpt NY Times Oct. 2011.) I doubt Hopper would add a German Shepherd in a 1939 painting.
And before Rin Tin Tin? There would be no Dorothy without Toto. Frank Baum wrote the The Wizard of Oz in 1900. The production of the movie adaptation made news ahead of its release August 29th, 1939. (It failed to earn a profit until re-releases decades later.)
Jack London’s Buck in The Call of the Wild debuted in 1903.
The Whitney Museum holds an early portrait drawing by Edward Hopper (1882-1967) of a contented dog–framed in a doghouse door naturally–dated 1893.
Edward Hopper Cape Cod, Evening 1939 was acquired by the National Gallery of Art in 1982.
I think about Wyeth and Chase a lot when I look at Hopper’s Cape Cod, Evening. Same when I encounter any one of the three.
A decade after Cape Cod, Evening, American artist and fan of Hopper, Andrew Wyeth, completed Christina’s World, 1948 (Museum of Modern Art, New York).
Dry grass dunes and vegetation in the Hamptons on Long Island by American artist William Merritt Chase, art world famous in his day, and one of Hopper’s esteemed fine art professors. Photos: C. Ryan. Installation views from the William Merritt Chase exhibition at the MFA in 2017. Shinnecock Hills of Southampton seen in two works: Bayberry Bush 1895 (Parrish Art Museum) and Seaside Flowers (Crystal Bridges) The photo with the supercharged green is how it’s often depicted, but not how I experience this Chase series in person. (Chase painted a bevy of great dogs in other works.)
The Saturday Evening Post’s tag line “Founded 1728 by Benj. Franklin”
Select to enlarge pages and pinch or zoom. PDF below. Lassie Come-Home by Edward Knight with illustrations by Arthur D. Fuller. The Saturday Evening Post. December 17, 1938
The issue also featured a Norman Rockwell on the cover, a serialized Agatha Christie installment, an investigative long read about universal healthcare– illustrated with a Farm Security Administration (FSA) photograph by Arthur Rothstein in Arkansas, circa 1935–and several classic ads. New Yorkers Jo and Ed Hopper did not eat at home much, and when they did…beans were a big draw. The prominent full page color Heinz ad was on the inside cover of this issue. I do not know the illustrator of the Gulfpride Oil ad, but it’s great. For more information about the FSA and Arthur Rothstein with a timeline continue reading here ; for more about Roy Stryker & the origins of the FSA and Gordon Parks continue reading here; and for more about the FSA and Howard Liberman continue reading here.
-by Catherine Ryan
cryanaid.com Edward Hopper All Around Gloucester
**First published 8/26/2023 on the occasion of National Dog Day. August 26 is International Dog Day. **
**August 26 is International Dog Day**
Illustrations: The short story, Lassie Come-Home by Edward Knight with illustrations by Arthur D. Fuller*, was an instant must-read-and-share when it was first published in the popular magazine, The Saturday Evening Post on December 17, 1938. Edward Hopper painted Cape Cod, Evening in 1939. *The illustrator’s signature is tough to read without the credit beneath the byline. (Scroll down to see and read the story pages or to print a PDF. It’s a great read!)
You may know the memorable and unbreakable bond of the boy and his dog which Lassie Come-Home describes, and the small and epic journeys.
The short story, Lassie Come-Home by Edward Knight with illustrations by Arthur D. Fuller, was an instant must-read-and-share when it was first published in the popular magazine, The Saturday Evening Post on December 17, 1938.
Edward Hopper painted Cape Cod, Evening in 1939.
The short story is set in England and opens with a small family of three in recurring and searing pain: Two parents who have fallen on hard times and are under great emotional strain struggle to comfort their only child because they sold the family dog. Their beautiful collie, “Lassie”, is so devoted to their son, the dog runs away from the new owner straight back to the boy over and over again. Under the circumstances, any and every solution is untenable. His parents’ misplaced anger, adult exchanges, and silence confuse the boy. Their anguish and love is palpable.
Out of desperation, Lassie is removed to Scotland which they believe will be an insurmountable distance to cover.
It’s not. And no wonder a legend is born!
The first Lassie novel was published in 1940. Swift adaptations followed. It’s easy to see how the story resonated with American audiences during the Great Depression, even perhaps the great American artist, Edward Hopper.
If not Lassie herself, it’s tempting to consider the intergenerational communication and couple dynamics explored in Knight’s story as themes Hopper noticed, too.
“…Then they heard his opening of the door and the voice stopped and the cottage was silent. That’s how it was now, the boy thought. They stopped talking in front of you. And this, somehow, was too much for him to bear. He closed the door, ran out into the night, and onto the moor, that great flat expanse of land where all the people of that village walked in lonesomeness when life and its troubles seemed past bearing…”
Lassie Come-Home, Edward Knight, The Saturday Evening Post, 1938 Dec. 17
Both used punctuation in titles. Knight offset the story’s title with a vital hyphen, Lassie Come-Home (command-comfort) that might have caught Hopper’s attention. Hopper used commas often for emphasis–as in Cape Cod, Evening.
Beyond the Great Depression, 1938 may have appeared especially distant, simpler, on first pass. Yet, with international tensions rising year by year and the horrors of WWI just a generation past, neither 1938 nor 1939 were simple. Jan Struther, another UK author, broached topics of peacetime, lengthy stasis, and looming loss in the popular Mrs. Miniver pieces, published in The Times London newspaper (1937-39 ), at the same times as Lassie. Reader’s Digest distribution was international beginning in 1938.
In Cape Cod, Evening 1939, Hopper’s dog reacts, hears something, like a whippoorwill, or so the story goes. (Lloyd Goodrich’s Hopper bio, 1971; also Gail Levin, 1995) Levin’s book takes time to introduce the reader to Hoppers’ friends, and so we understand the grief from the loss of their friend Harriet Jenness who died “in early July of 1939. It was she who had firmed up the Hoppers’ courage to build in the first place and provided a roof till theirs was done.” (Levin, 1995.)
Cape Cod, Evening is constantly changing because it’s laden with enigmatic motifs. It’s late summer and fall. Unsettling and calm. Are the man and woman taking a momentary break together (as with the son and father walking in the Lassie story) or engaged in a forced desist (as with the parents going silent in the Lassie story)? Active fight or passive summer ennui? And what about that evergreen Hopper forest at the edge? Is it a cool and reachable retreat? Are the trees leaning, falling? Is the sea of dry grass sunlit and waving or scorched and still? And why no path? The man and woman are lost in thought. Worried? Families will have to have difficult conversations. Some won’t return. And what about the significance of that star dog with the striking fur?
Hopper was 35 at the onset of WWI, registered, but not called for duty. He was 57 in 1939.
Edward Hopper paintings dated 1939: Bridle Path (Bruce Museum of Art, CT), Ground Swell ( NGA collection), Cape Cod, Evening (NGA collection), and New York Movie (MoMa)
As a group, they make a strong case that Hopper was thinking about 1939 in 1939.
Edward Hopper and Jo Hopper were on the Cape when war broke out.
On August 29, 1939, friends dropped by their summer home in Truro and Jo Hopper noted in her diary how the woman said, “…She’d been to England last week. Said they all prepared for way—everyone has his funkhole ready for an air raid.” On August 30 she added “E.” went to town on errands and picked up a magazine:
“Augu. 30. Still raining. After lunch E. went to P.O. & bought back kerosene, Readers Dig, postcard from Ginny at fair + the note from D R.—to see us Sept. 18 at 11. Onion soup & banana salad for lunch & tummy ache over dishes. E. so tired. Standing up at canvas. Canvas seems standing still. But I’ve seen that happen before…”
Josephine N. Hopper, Aug. 30, 1929 diary page. Provincetown Art Museum Collection, 2016. “Donation by Laurence C. and J. Anton Schiffenhaus in honor of their mother Mary Schiffenhaus (a close and personal friend of Josephine and Edward Hopper)”
On September 1, 1939 Germany invaded Poland, and England and France declared war on Germany just two days later.
On September 3, Jo mentions art and war :
“…E’s 2 canvases*. Sailboat without sky as yet. Tonight Bertha Frank & Edgar Cobb came up to say good bye for the season. Everyone else in Truro had their supper dishes washed—but we hadn’t begun yet. E. was still working when they arrived. He’s been plenty interrupted today. We didn’t swim—it looked so cold. Ginny said not cold but very dirty + water full of pink jelly fish.
So war is declared today & yesterday we saw that over into Poland. E. had a Times yesterday & we saw that. How Nat. news dwarfs everything. Why Pittsburgh festivities. Why anything. E. said he could drive an ambulance. I hope not. We most of everything need to get well…”
Josephine N. Hopper, Sept. 3, 1939. *Ground Swell and Cape Cod, Evening
Examples of dogs in famous visual arts and letters abound before Lassie. During WWI, the soon to be famous german shepherd puppy Rin Tin Tin was rescued from the battlefield by Lee Duncan, and brought back to the United States. He was trained exceptionally well then on a hunch for the Silent Movie era. The original Rin Tin Tin’s first Hollywood movie was a bit part in 1922. He starred in so many box office hits, when he died in 1932 his death ‘stopped the presses’. Generations of Rin Tin Tin descendents followed, representing his public legacy if not his agility and acting chops. Other shepherds were used in later vehicles. For more about Rin Tin Tin’s global fame and impact and Duncan’s life–he did not trademark the name– see Susan Orleans biography, Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend. (Also her short piece The Dog Star, New Yorker, Aug. 2011 and a preview excerpt NY Times Oct. 2011.)
And before Rin Tin Tin? There would be no Dorothy without Toto. Frank Baum wrote the The Wizard of Oz in 1900. The production of the movie adaptation made news and was released August 29th, 1939. It failed to earn a profit until re-releases decades later.
Jack London’s Buck in The Call of the Wild debuted in 1903.
The Whitney Museum holds an early portrait drawing by Hopper of a contented dog–framed in a doghouse door naturally–dated 1893.
Edward Hopper Cape Cod, Evening 1939 was acquired by the National Gallery of Art in 1982.
I think about Wyeth and Chase a lot when I look at Hopper’s Cape Cod, Evening. Same when I encounter any one of the three.
A decade after Cape Cod, Evening, American artist and fan of Hopper, Andrew Wyeth, completed Christina’s World, 1948 (Museum of Modern Art, New York).
Dry grass dunes and vegetation in the Hamptons on Long Island by American artist William Merritt Chase, art world famous in his day, and one of Hopper’s esteemed fine art professors. Photos: C. Ryan. Installation views from the William Merritt Chase exhibition at the MFA in 2017. Shinnecock Hills of Southampton seen in two works: Bayberry Bush 1895 (Parrish Art Museum) and Seaside Flowers (Crystal Bridges) The photo with the supercharged green is how it’s often depicted, but not how I experience this Chase series in person. (Chase painted a bevy of great dogs in other works.)
The Saturday Evening Post’s tag line “Founded 1728 by Benj. Franklin”
Select to enlarge pages and pinch or zoom. PDF below. Lassie Come-Home by Edward Knight with illustrations by Arthur D. Fuller. The Saturday Evening Post. December 17, 1938
The issue also featured a Norman Rockwell on the cover, a serialized Agatha Christie installment, an investigative long read about universal healthcare– illustrated with a Farm Security Administration (FSA) photograph by Arthur Rothstein in Arkansas, circa 1935–and several classic ads. New Yorkers Jo and Ed Hopper did not eat at home much, and when they did…beans were a big draw. The prominent full page color Heinz ad was on the inside cover of this issue. I do not know the illustrator of the Gulfpride Oil ad, but it’s great. For more information about the FSA and Arthur Rothstein with a timeline continue reading here ; for more about Roy Stryker & the origins of the FSA and Gordon Parks continue reading here; and for more about the FSA and Howard Liberman continue reading here.
-by Catherine Ryan
cryanaid.com Edward Hopper All Around Gloucester
**First published 8/26/2023 on the occasion of National Dog Day. August 26 is International Dog Day. **
Save the date announcement from Jane Deering-
Jane Deering Gallery is pleased to present GEOFFREY BAYLISS | white, and black on white
opening with a public Reception on Thursday August 24th, 2023 from 5-7pm. This is Bayliss’s fifth solo show with the gallery and celebrates his Ink drawings, monotypes and recent experimental sculpture — all media in the sophistication of white and black.
Geoffrey Bayliss, a native of Gloucester, holds a BA in architecture from Columbia University. He has studied with artist Celia Eldridge, sculptor John Bozarth, printmaker Coco Berkman, and artist Charlotte Roberts. His work is held in numerous private collections in the US. Bayliss’s work was recently featured at OMG Art Faire, Kingston NY — the first contemporary art fair in New York’s Hudson Valley.
Continue reading:
Gloucester and Rockport views all in one summer day, 8/13/2023: 5 P.M., 5:01 P.M., 5:15, 5:16 (w/Salt Island), 5:16 (turned), 5:58, 6:00 P.M., 6:12, 6;13, 6:25 (sunbeam rainbow shines on Twin Lights), 6:26, 6:27, 6:28, 8:22, 9:30 P.M. Note the ‘big sky’ scale of clouds compared with a car, homes, roofs, Salt Island, etc
photo block 5pm-930pm observed sky: The many weather moods in 4 hours on August 13, 2023. Capped off with red (sprites) and white lightning visible from Long Beach 9-10:00 P.M. The lightning looked a bit like far off fireworks. Red and orange bursts and dashes registered some on cell phone (4 sec video clips below). Bet there were some beautiful night and day photos!
Rainbow and crepuscular rays- Rainbow streaks shine on Thacher Island.
7 seconds (tough to see: look for red in the middle of the frame at about 4 sec mark. May need to enlarge to full size to bypass the ‘play’ button)
10 seconds- look for dashes in the middle of the frame. White flicker on left was a drone
4 seconds- If this frame were split in 3 vertical strips, about 2 seconds in concentrate on the the left 1/3 to see a pinkish red pulse. Earlier in the evening there were sweeping arcs of diffused lightning
August 13, 2023.
Gloucester and Rockport views all in a summer day. Photo block 5pm-930pm observed sky: The many weather moods in just 4 hours. Capped off with red (sprites) and white lightning visible from Long Beach 9-10:00 P.M. The lightning looked a bit like far off fireworks. Red and orange bursts and dashes registered some on cell phone (4 sec video clips below). Bet there were some beautiful photos tonight!
8/13/2023: 5 P.M., 5:01 P.M., 5:15, 5:16, 5:58, 6:00 P.M., 6:12, 6;13, 6:25 (rainbow), 6:26, 6:27, 6:28, 8:22, 9:30 P.M. Note the big sky scale of clouds compared with a car, homes, roofs, Salt Island, etc
Rainbow and crepuscular rays- Rainbow streaks shine on Thacher Island.
7 seconds (tough to see: look for red in the middle of the frame at about 4 sec mark. May need to enlarge to full size to bypass the ‘play’ button)
10 seconds- look for dashes in the middle of the frame. White flicker on left was a drone
4 seconds- If this frame were split in 3 vertical strips, about 2 seconds in concentrate on the the left 1/3 to see a pinkish red pulse. Earlier in the evening there were sweeping arcs of diffused lightning that .
Final weekend for Women Talking **Closing party Sunday April 13, 2023 3-5pm**
In Motion at the Cultural Center at Rocky Neck is on view through August 20, 2023
Adin Murray’s sixth show, Intertidal, at Jane Deering Gallery–on view through August 20, 2023–includes a compact and glowing group of landscape preparatory drawings ($1200), oil studies ($2500), and large paintings ($8000-$12,000) focused on coastal wetlands, real and not so real, in settings familiar and still, whether fall or spring, day or night, clear or misty.
Murray hews his moon and horizon motifs inland for this new series. And why not? Murray resides and works on Cape Ann and encounters the stunning Great Salt Marsh at every bend, its constantly changing conditions a natural wonder.
Red dots: collectors have purchased ‘Intertidal’ works across all three media processes.
In the flat files, ask to see a classic new series on paper by Aaron Fink inspired by the vicissitudes of a big melty pop of juicy watermelon and abstraction that serves up a slice of life’s shifting moods. Fink maintains studios in Boston and Rockport.
Upcoming: Geoffrey Bayliss white, and black on white opens August 24, 2023.
Reminder! Rockport’s annual Illumination is Saturday, August 12, 2023. 9pm Fireworks. Flyer below.
photos: paper lanterns downtown Rockport, Senior Center, Post Office, Library, storefronts, porches, Dock Square
As pretty as a picture! Perhaps Rockport Art Assoc and Cape Ann Museum can hang a selection to time with the annual Rockport Illumination (from their collections and new work by living artists responding to the art, illumination, and the summer celebration).
Showtimes tomorrow and Friday!
“Some of the cast took over the camera from our Counselor/Videographer, the talented Martina Gallo. Enjoy!”
Heidi Dallin
The Cape Ann YMCA Presents Disney Frozen Jr. performances tomorrow! And Friday!
Printable flyer
Adin Murray exhibition opens this week: ADIN MURRAY | Intertidal
Reception: Thursday August 3rd, 2023. 5-7pm at Jane Deering Gallery,19 Pleasant Street, Gloucester, MA.
Continue reading the news from Jane Deering Gallery:
Jane Deering Gallery is pleased to present ADIN MURRAY | Intertidal opening with a public reception on Thursday August 3rd from 5-7pm. As in his two previous series—Horizon and Moon—Murray’s reverence for the spirit of the natural world continues with an exploration of the intertidal waters and the great salt marsh lands of Cape Ann. This new show is intended to give the viewer a peek into the process that Murray employs to create his work. Consisting of preparatory drawings, preparatory oil studies, and three final large format paintings, the exhibition affirms the fundamental stages in the development of a final piece. Adin Murray holds a BA in Art/Biology from Tulane University and an MFA in painting from the Savannah College of Art and Design.
His work is in the permanent collection of the Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester MA and in corporate and private collections in the US and abroad. Murray lives and maintains a studio in Gloucester, MA. This is his sixth show with Jane Deering Gallery. Intertidal runs August 3-20, 2023. Gallery hours: Friday & Saturday 1-5pm; Sunday 1-4pm; and by appointment at 917-902-4359. The gallery is located at 19 Pleasant Street, Gloucester. janedeeringgallery.com .
Jane Deering Gallery. works from the exhibition can be viewed at:
https://www.janedeeringgallery.com/adin-murray-intertidal
printable here:
Heidi Dallin shares the showtime reminder and the cool cast intro hype
This our cast intro video. Everyone made their hats. They are part of the Oaken costume!
Heidi Dallin
Printable flyer
Good Morning Gloucester 