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.
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 illustratorโs 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.
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.
World War Two
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, “…Sheโd been to England last week. Said they all prepared for warโeveryone 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.โto 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 Iโve seen that happen before…”
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 :
“…Eโs 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 washedโbut we hadnโt begun yet. E. was still working when they arrived. Heโs been plenty interrupted today. We didnโt swimโit 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
star dogs
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.
Wyeth
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).
William Merritt Chase
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.)
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.
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 illustratorโs 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.
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, “…Sheโd been to England last week. Said they all prepared for wayโeveryone 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.โto 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 Iโve seen that happen before…”
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 :
“…Eโs 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 washedโbut we hadnโt begun yet. E. was still working when they arrived. Heโs been plenty interrupted today. We didnโt swimโit 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
star dogs
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.
Wyeth
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).
William Merritt Chase
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.)
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.
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).
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President Joe Biden takes a selfie with mental health youth action forum participants. Official White House photograph by Adam Schultz. “Weโve invested $1 billion to help schools hire and train 14,000 new mental health counselors in schools across the country. Weโre also taking steps to address the harm social media is doing to young people and hold these platforms accountable.” July 31, 2023
Fitz Henry Lane (1804-1865). Boston Harbor. 1854. Oil on canvas. Gift of the Wassermans, 1963. (Provenance: via Kennedy Galleries)
William Ranney (1813โ1857). Boys Crabbing. 1855. Oil on canvas. Provenance: via Hirschl & Adler (added to the White House Collection in 1972)
photo: Fitz Henry Lane’s Boston Harbor at the MFA. David Cox. 2016
*I wrote about art at the White House in 2014 which was published here on GMG in 2015:
โWhatโs the best art inside the White House? No matter what is your artistic preference, Gloucester and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts could top the charts as the City and state with the best and most art ties featured at the White House.
โฆHow does the White House collection work? It is unusual for the White House to accept art by living artists. There are more than 450 works of art in the permanent collection. New art enters the collection after it’s vetted and is restricted to works created at least 25 years prior to the date of acquisition. For the public rooms, the Office of the Curator works with the White House advisory committee–the First Lady serves as the Honorary Chair–and the White House Historical Association. The private rooms are the domain of the First Family. Works of art from collectors, museums, and galleries can be requested for temporary loans and are returned at the end of the Presidentโs final term. The Obamas have selected contemporary art, including abstract art, from the permanent collection, and borrowed work for their private quarters. Besides the Hopper paintings and John Alstonโs Martin Luther King sculpture, theyโve selected art by *Anni Albers, *Josef Albers, Edgar Degas, Jasper Johns, Louise Nevelson, *Robert Rauschenberg, Edward Ruscha, and *Alma Thomas.โย * indicates works that have been donated to the permanent collection.
Catherine Ryan, 2014
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In celebration of Mass College of Art & Design 150th Anniversary, the MassArt Art Museum honors renown American artist, May Stevens, born in Massachusetts and raised in Quincy by the river and sea, a distinguished Massachusetts College of Art and Design alumna. She died in 2019 at the age of 95. From a body of painterly work spanning six decades, this show spotlights one of Stevens major figurative series and themes centered on three women: her mother, Alice, Rosa Luxemburg, and May herself. Vitrines with archival printed matter, personal documents and photos, and audio stations are thoughtfully interspersed, non intrusive yet vivid. May was as close as family to me. I was her dealer and lucky to speak with her daily for years. It is beautiful installation.
The gallery is open Friday-Sunday. The last chance to visit the May Stevens show is today and tomorrow. Hopefully there’ll be a future survey with another series or major retrospective soon.
Edward Hopper in Nyack | Hudson River and Hook Mountain & Nyack Beach Loop, Palisades Park
American Artist Edward Hopper (1882-1967) was born and raised in Nyack, Rockland County, New York. The home he grew up in still stands because local stewards obtained its landmark status in the 1970s and eventually designation as an important historic house museum, The Edward Hopper House Museum & Research Center.
Hopper’s boyhood home on 82 North Broadway was perched on a rise with an unobstructed view downhill to the magnificent Hudson River with easy access to an active waterfront and smack dab in the middle of two worlds.
Stepping out the front door To the Right
To the right, it was a short walk to a cityscape: his fatherโs store, the train station, and all that was necessary for commerce in a bustling town at the turn of the century.
To the Left
To the left and surrounding streets nearby, it was a short walk to residential neighborhoods with a handsome array of American architectural styles common on the East Coast–but unique town by town.
photos above: Catherine Ryan. 718 North Broadway, Nyack | Edward Hopper. Seven AM. 1948. Whitney Museum
FURTHER LEFT to HOOK MOUNTAIN
Further on to the left (less than 5 miles) it was a quick trip by bike to a range of scenic landscapes: rural, farm and river view estates–until the last stopโthe rugged wildness of Hook Mountain, a local icon (and historic landmark for navigation), part of the Palisades park system, with stunning cliff views.
In recent years trail advocates established a complete Hook Mountain and Nyack Beach loop that’s about six miles RT. It’s awesome.
HOPPER PULSE | HALLMARK HORIZONTAL COMPOSITION
We can traverse Nyackโs particular stretch of riverfront geography because North Broadway–on the street where Edward Hopper lived and returned to–bisects the terrain parallel to the river. No matter which direction one ambles, the reassuring view of the Hudson and distant riverbank stays fixed, stretching horizontally as far as the eye can see.
Westchester, Tarrytown across the river (and on a sunny day the Tarrytown lighthouse is visible)
Above: OAK HILL CEMETERY NYACK
Of all the places he resided or visited, he chose to be buried in Nyack. Turns out, you can’t take Hopper out of Nyack.
In Oak Hill Cemetery in Nyack, the grave of Edward Hopper and Jo Nivison are next to his parents and sister, high above the family home on North Broadway, with a view of the Hudson River and the unmistakable distant shore. And sited–fittingly for Hopper–on a corner, at a bend where paths converge.
American theater legend, Helen Hayes (Helen Hayes MacArthur, 1900-1993), owned a riverfront estate across the street and a few blocks down the road from the Hopper family home, humorously nicknamed ‘Pretty Penny’ (in the block of house photos above), and drawn resentfully by Hopper when Hayes commissioned a house portrait through his art dealer or so she wrote. (I may write more about that.) The painting was hung prominently and visible in publicity stills .
Hayes is buried in Nyack’s Oak Hill Cemetery further down Oak hill from the Hopper markers. There are four flat markers flush with the grass for her family. Sadly, her daughter died in 1949 at age 19 from polio before the vaccine.
The grave for American artist Joseph Cornell is located down and off to the right of Hayes.
Edward Hopper in Gloucester
Hopper’s impressions of Nyack are repeated in his art throughout his life.
Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) was a famous Japanese artist who came from humble beginnings and was active in the Edo period. He was an influential and revered artist and fine arts professor in his own lifetime. Hokusai eked out a living as a printmaker and illustrator, setting off on his own after years with the prestigious Katsukawa School, a premiere teaching and publishing powerhouse specializing in the ukiyo-e style color woodblock prints. A life in art and print publishing is tough going now and it was then. To supplement his income, Hokusai changed his name some 20 times, selling his surname or ‘brand’ to select pupils. He produced three of his most popular bodies of work when he was in his seventies. Hokusai died at 90 impoverished financially though not in obscurity. Students and friends paid for his funeral.
Hokusai: Inspiration and Influence at the MFA, lays out 100 examples of Katsushika Hokusai’s lifework in every period, genre, and medium, his famous woodblock series, new discoveries and rarities, and the Japanese and Western cultural exchanges that impacted his own practice. About 200 works of art by other artists spanning 200+ years demonstrate a sample of Hokusai’s relevance and inspiration to artists he knew or taught, and to artists and movements, generation by generation and around the globe, since his death.
The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston established one of the largest and finest Asian art departments in the world in the 1890s thanks to art historian curators, collectors, and benefactors. Highlights are featured with great care because of their fragility and easy rotation because of the depth of the museum’s holdings. The collection was amassed early and driven by four scholars. The inventory acquired by Ernest Fenollosa, an art historian, educator, and later, curator. was eventually purchased by Charles Weld, Boston physician and collector, with the stipulation that it be given to the MFA. The bulk of the MFA’s Hokusai trove were collected by Dr. William Bigelow.
Thanks to the MFA collections, its acquisitions and gifts, and great temporary loans, this exhibition celebrates Japanese art, especially Hokusai, emanating from his most iconic and lasting image, Under the Wave off Kanagawa (Kanagawa oki nami ura), 1830-32. Also known as The Great Wave ( an abbreviated and generalized title that amplified sales) the woodblock print is from Thirty-six Views of Mt. Fuji, a series so popular the artist increased it to Forty-six. You might not know the man but you likely know that surf.
MFA’s installation–loosely chronological
Japanese artist Katsukawa Shunshล operated the most popular ukiyo-e studio and Hokusai was employed there for over a decade until Shunshoโs death. Eventually Hokusai became an independent artist & teacher. The exhibition unfolds with masterpieces by both Hokusai and Katsukawa Shunshล and with exceptional work by their students and peers. After this introduction to the ‘lineage’ years, the installation is grouped by themes dear to Hokusai juxtaposed with work by artists in the decades following his death in 1849. The broad survey is an introduction to how the Japanese woodblock industry and ukiyo-e art and culture influenced French fashion, design, and the art movements which inspired modern art (and vice versa).
By the time of the Great Wave, Hokusai maximized landscapes which was novel at the time. With so much sea and sky, the color blue in every hue and tone is everywhere. Imported and available by the 1820s in Japan and cheap (unlike ultramarine), the synthetic dark blue pigment known as โPrussian blueโ was stable and could be used to create deep, rich velvety blue and great transparencyโa game changer for artists and woodblock prints.
installation photos below: Catherine Ryan. Hokusai: Inspiration and Influence. MFA, Boston. March 30, 2023. Pinch and zoom to enlarge. Right click or select “i” for information for captions.
Floating the idea of the floating world
Ukiyo-e prints (images of the floating world) were invented when demand became so great a mass marketing innovation was required. Sellers could not afford to nor fill the orders which became too time consuming and limited by labor costs and pool of artisans. Although woodblock prints were original and labor intensive in other ways, hundreds of single sheets could be pulled in a day. Bright and colorful art for all, disseminated worldwide, ukiyo-e art was an early format example of mass media.
Shunsho | hokusai
Two Shunsho immersive six panel screens
Early Hokusai
fellow ARTISTS
Some students, some famous, some rediscovered- Hokusai II, Hiroshige, Kuniyoshi, Katsushika Taito II. Hokusai’s daughter signed her work Katsushika ลi
LATE HOKUSAI and prussian blue
Mostly examples from series after 1830s on when he was in his 70s: 36 Views of Mt. Fuji, Large Flowers, Small Flowers, Waterfalls, Remarkable Views of Bridges, Fifty-three Stations on the Tokaido Road. (The far younger Hiroshige born in 1790 produced 10 prints of famous places in 1825 before Hokusai, 69 Stations Kiso Road in 1835, and 100 Views of Edo in 1856 two years before he died in the cholera epidemic.)
japonisme. Impressionism. Post-Impressionism. Art NOUVEAU. late 19th C
Ipswich icon Arthur Wesley Dow
Like Hokusai, Dow (1857-1922) was an artist and influential teacher. He spread the gospel of composition and design, Japanese culture and ukiyo-e art, in America. And similarly to Hokusai, fine arts students gravitated to his own wildly influential instruction book. A Dow woodcut and dory were grouped with Ushibori by Hokusai, from the Mt. Fuji series. See the blue!
20th C
Color woodblock prints by Edna Boies Hopkins, an American artist active in the early 20th C who lived in Japan and France, studied with Dow, and was an influential member of the Provincetown Printmakers are on view. I am proud to write that back in 1986, I co-curated the first Hopkins solo exhibition retrospective since the 1920s and authored the essay and catalogue. The research for the project meant time spent in Ipswich and the Ipswich Historical Society for a close study of Arthur Wesley Dow.
21st C – MITSUI’s lego gREAT wAVE
Christiane Baumgartner’s 2017 monumental woodblock print on Kozo paper, The Wave
RIP Yvonne Jacquette, so glad to see her complex work included, a fittingly zig zag aerial nocturne view of famous NYC bridges no less, Two Bridges III, 2008 woodcut printed in dark ink on Okawara paper and acquired by the MFA before her passing at the end of April.
People were thrilled to encounter Hokusai’s The Great Wave in person and waited in line because of its scale and beauty. Multi-generational families shared the experience and wanted to take pictures which moved me tremendously. Hokusai and his peers, and artists influenced by them, produced series of cherished vistas and visual poems and legends for all price points. The LEGO installation helped ground the show and bring the joy, humor and blockbuster awe that ukiyo-e genre and series did in its time–before movies, photography, animation, easy travel, etc..
The LEGO commission by master builder Jumpei Mitsui riveted visitors of all ages on the days I visited the exhibition (if not in the art press I’ve read since). When you know the price point and target audience for the ukiyo-e art, i.e. the commoner and its arduous, technical process, the LEGO Great Wave homage– colossal, blue, and an exacting marvel of another sort– was a great fit to underscore connections to the past and engage audiences. Its scale and drama heightened the perspective of the crews and the boats in a way that other selections did not.
People looking at art
on view at the MFA, Boston: Hokusai: Inspiration and Influence
On the nose pairings
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Color spread looks great! Gloucester’s history of summer seasons, the 400+ Anniversary festivities, the 4th of July Fireworks, and Cape Ann Museum’s Edward Hopper exhibition & walking tours are mentioned.
“When I was growing up in Gloucester, Mass., we were steeped in…”
McGrath, Ellie. “Summer at the Seaport.” Wall Street Journal. Print edition May 27-28, 2023. On line read here
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Do you know a cluster of homes perched like the subjects in this classic Edward Hopper watercolor painted here in Gloucester 100 years ago? Hallmark motifs and themes pair up throughout this bright and sunny scene: outhouse on the left and brush edged to the right (“nature calls”), passage between buildings and boulders, light and sharp shadow, double windows and curtains, roofline and sky, line up of chimneys, and the mystery of cropped views over the hill and off to the sides.
A house like the home on the right with dark trim and the pair of double stacked windows may appear to be a double story home from one side and as a single story from another. (A home at the corner of Webster and Sadler Sts. shows the vernacular charm and multi vantage points.)
At Sotheby’s May 2023
The drawing is available for purchase. The Whitney Museum of American Art is deaccessioning four Edward Hopper watercolors inspired by the artist’s travel to four locations: Gloucester, Truro, Vermont/NH, and South Carolina. Sotheby’s Auction House has listed them in their major upcoming New York spring sales: one painting for the Modern Evening auction May 16 and 3 paintings on paper for the Modern Day auction on May 17. A fifth Edward Hopper work on paper is included in the day sale.
Images: Edward Hopper works from the Whitney collection at Sotheby’s auction May 2023, images left to right: Lot 434 Red Barn in Autumn Landscape, 1927; Lot 430 Gloucester Group of Houses 1923 est 500,000 โ 700,000; Lot 432 The Battery, Charleston, SC 1929 est 500-700,000; Lot 145 Cobb’s Barn, South Truro, circa 1930-33, presale estimate 8-12 million. This painting was selected for display in the Oval Office* by President Obama. A later Edward Hopper Cape Cod watercolor from 1943, Four Dead Trees, with a presale estimate of 700,000-1,000,000, sold at Christie’s on April 23, 2023 for 1.5 million (price realized includes added fees). Lot 531 an Edward Hopper Sailboat study from 1899 from the Sanborn batch, presale est. $100,000 (w/ art and papers in the Nyack home following Hoppers’ deaths.)
image: Portrait of President Obama viewing Edward Hopper paintings in the Oval Office by Chuck Kennedy. Loan from/by the Whitney Art Museum 2014 (and other selections and guidance see Michael Rosenfeld Gallery)
On right, Hopper’s NY Rooftops 1927 reminds me of the Gloucester forms ( installation view Whitney NY, Jan 2023), like vessels on the Hudson. Photo c ryan
—
*I wrote about art at the White House in 2014 which was published here on GMG in 2015:
“Whatโs the best art inside the White House? No matter what is your artistic preference, Gloucester and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts could top the charts as the City and state with the best and most art ties featured at the White House. Letโs break down a selection of that Massachusetts list currently on display at the White House room-by-room, shall we?
“Not one, but two Edward Hopper paintings, lent by the Whitney Museum of American Art, were installed one over the other, Cobbโs Barns, South Truro and Burly Cobbโs House, South Truro. The Childe Hassamโs painting, Avenue in the Rain, and Norman Rockwellโs painting, Statue of Liberty, were displayed nearby.
…How does the White House collection work? It is unusual for the White House to accept art by living artists. There are more than 450 works of art in the permanent collection. New art enters the collection after its vetted and is restricted to works created at least 25 years prior to the date of acquisition. For the public rooms, the Office of the Curator works with the White House advisory committee, the First Lady serves as the Honorary Chair, and the White House Historical Association. The private rooms are the domain of the First Family. Works of art from collectors, museums, and galleries can be requested for temporary loans and are returned at the end of the Presidentโs final term. The Obamas have selected contemporary art, including abstract art, from the permanent collection, and borrowed work for their private quarters. Besides the Hopper paintings and John Alstonโs Martin Luther King sculpture, theyโve selected art by *Anni Albers, *Josef Albers, Edgar Degas, Jasper Johns, Louise Nevelson, *Robert Rauschenberg, Edward Ruscha, and *Alma Thomas.” * indicates works that have been donated to the permanent collection.
Catherine Ryan, 2014
Works from the White House permanent collection
There are more than 120 Edward Hopper works inspired by Gloucester, MA. See Edward Hopper all around Gloucester. The Whitney Museum has sold Hoppers before. I’ll write more about that for another post.
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Hundreds of the library’s Gloucester Newspaper Microfilm Collection of monthly reels spanning 40+ years have been optimized for accessibility and are now fully searchable on line! The microfilm rolls and readers on site are up and running as well.
It’s as easy as click on the home page! Here’s Julie Travers, SFL’s Local History Librarian, walking me through the happy news. If you’d like to contribute to the library’s ongoing efforts, each roll costs roughly $175-$200 a piece.
Archives for All!
“HISTORY MAKING PLEA – ARCHIVES FOR ALL The prohibitive costs of best practice historic preservation (ADA compliant, temperature and humidity controls, security, sustainability, in house scanning/OCR/audio transcription, etc.) is impossible for all the worthy collections in town, and pits them as foes when vying for funds. Letโs flip that impediment on its head and make Gloucester a model for the state. Its treasures would be available worldwide if they were truly accessible โdigitized…”
How exciting that Gloucester’s repositories have been busy digitizing treasures from their archives. The GDT newspaper microfilm rolls are a welcome addition.
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Pre-Sale Catalog Special Offer: Pre-order your Edward Hopper & Cape Ann: Illuminating an American Landscape catalog in anticipation of this special exhihibition. Shipping of the catalog will begin on the official release, May 2nd.
If you want to be thunderstruck by how much New York inspired Edward Hopper and how much Hopper influenced everything else, look no further than Renzo Pianoโs spectacular design of the Whitney Museum flagship which opened on 99 Gansevoort in 2015. The building serves the art no matter the exhibit. Yet, I have not felt such an overwhelming Hopper vibe until this show.
This piece is part one of a review with installation images and photo journal inspired by visits to Edward Hopperโs New York at the Whitney Museum (October 19, 2022-March 5, 2023).
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A big save the date–July 22, 2023–in today’s paper!
“The exhibition, accompanied by a 225-page catalog, will include 65 paintings, drawings, and prints, 57 of them by Hopper, seven by Nivison, and one by Robert Henri…”
Step into Edward Hopper’s life in Gloucester with the web-based digital Google map I first created in 2010, Edward Hopper all around Gloucester, that reveals where scores of Hopper’s works of art were inspired in Gloucester beyond a well known core, and corrected several misidentifications possibly hinting at Maine or Cape Cod. By my last tally, there’s more than 120 in Gloucester! The exhibition at Cape Ann Museum will gather Gloucester originals together from public and private collections which is no small feat. What a thrill and opportunity to wander and wonder about art and ideas, and celebrate Gloucester.
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Finally! A major exhibition of Hopper’s Gloucester is underway, and one that will be mounted right here in Gloucester. Mark your calendars for visits to Cape Ann Museum this summer to study up close 60 Edward Hopper paintings, drawings and prints inspired by Gloucester and Cape Ann, on loan from the Whitney Museum of American Art and other public and private collections, and featuring a selection of work by Josephine Nivison Hopper.
Masterpiece drawings are rarely on public view or loaned because 1)they are fragile and watercolors are especially susceptible to light damage and 2)they can be a fixture highlight of a permanent collection which does not warrant any absence easily. This gathering of Hopper originals inspired by Gloucester at the Cape Ann Museum will truly be a once in a generation or lifetime opportunity to see the drawings on view and together in one venue. Investments and improvements into Cape Ann Museum facilities undertaken during Ronda Faloon’s tenure as former Director improved conditions so much that the museum can secure and protect temporary loans of such significance.
“Edward Hopper & Cape Ann: Illuminating an American Landscape is on view at CAM this summer 2023. Opening on July 22, Hopperโs birthday, exactly 100 years after his pivotal trip to Gloucester (then celebrating its 300th anniversary), this once-in-a-generation exhibition offers a fresh look at one of Americaโs best-known artists at the crucial moment that profoundly shaped his art and his life. It shows the largely ignored but significant origin story of Hopperโs years in and around Gloucester, Massachusettsโa period and place that imbued Hopperโs paintings with a clarity and purpose that had eluded his earlier work. The success of Hopperโs Gloucester watercolors transformed his work in all media and set the stage for his monumental career.”
Edward Hopper (1882-1967) earned respect from his colleagues since his student days and ‘world famous artist’ status in his own time. Admiration for his contribution to American 20th century art did not fade in the 21st century. Indeed it’s been supercharged. Dr. Elliot Bostwick Davis, a long time curator and former museum director, was brought in to lead the survey at Cape Ann Museum, and its accompanying catalogue, published by Rizzoli, the preeminent art publishing house, with a foreword by Adam Weinberg and available in May. Davis was part of the curatorial team that produced the major 2007 Hopper exhibit for the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston which traveled to the Art Institute of Chicago and National Gallery. Significant Hopper artworks are on permanent display and revered worldwide. One imagines that Davis’s efforts were certain to secure the loans Cape Ann Museum sought, and perhaps a future Hopper bequest for the museum. As an art dealer, I first met Dr. Davis when she was an assistant curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art when Colta Ives was the director of the print department.
I determined that there are more than 120 Edward Hopper works of art inspired by Gloucester, and mapped them which helped with the walking tour developed at Cape Ann Museum years after and was credited in CAM’s brochure. Less than 30 had been identified and some were credited to locations elsewhere in Massachusetts or out of state.
Publishers back in 2010 and 2012 did not think there was enough of a market for a Gloucester focused Hopper monograph. Good Morning Gloucester did and was the first to publish that research. In the past decade, Hopper surveys–whether narrow in focus, a broad retrospective traveling in the United States and abroad, or a viral social media expression during the pandemic–have been blockbusters and relevant, inspiring bequests, discoveries, and original work by filmmakers, playwrights, authors and musicians. It’s Gloucester’s time!
Edward Hopper, House in the Italian Quarter, 1923, watercolor, Smithsonian.
“#16 Fort Square Road, Gloucester, MA. Turn around with your back to Gloucester harbor and face “Tony’s House” at the angle shown here. In the painting, note the hint of city skyline lower left, and the slight slope along the right of the harbor. The double house and outhouses were irresistible and inevitable subjects.”
Catherine Ryan, 2010. Update: Shingles gone. The home was for sale in 2020, sold, and renovated. Blue cladding is recent. Photo with snow 1/24/2023. Note Birdseye in 2010 photos where Beauport Hotel is now.
The cover for the new catalogue features this home on Washington Street. The painting is in private hands, part of a wonderful collection in New York advised by fantastic curators associated with the Whitney. After this exhibit at Cape Ann Museum perhaps an eventual bequest here in Gloucester could happen.
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Gloucester neighborhoods are shining bright! There are some 350 houses on the 2022 map. The map is smart phone ready with house pictures. A little light goes a long and welcome warm way. It’s dark so early now!
New homes mapped on December 14th,16th, &18th cover some of Gloucester’s main roads, mostly in West Gloucester, Magnolia, and along Rt. 127. Enjoy scenes from:
Rt. 133/ Essex Ave from Kent Circle tree past Little River to Rt. 128
Concord St.
Main Street – lobster trap tree
Magnolia Ave.
Western Ave.- Rt. 127
Thatcher R. – Rt. 217A by Long Beach Dairy Maid, thru Rockport, Tree in Dock Square, then Rt. 127-Washington St. loop Lanesville, Plum Cove, Bayview, Annisquam
(Scroll down to see photos. Pinch and zoom or double click depending upon your phone/desktop. On mine I double click and then have to select “Full size”. Scroll down to map.)
100 more homes mapped as of December 9, 2022. New streets (and/or newly lit homes on previously mapped streets), especially in East Gloucester, include:
Abbott Road, Abbot Place (off Harrison), Bass Ave., Brightside Ave, Chapel St., Crestwood Terrace (off Harrison), Davis St., Decatur St., East Main St., Grapevine Road, Green St., Harrison Ave., Hartz, Haskell, High Popples, Jacques Lane, Mt. Pleasant Ave., Perkins St., Rocky Pasture Rd., Skywood Terrace (off Harrison), Witham
GIFs
Map
**Raindeer are trending in East Gloucester**
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Gloucester nearing 200 sparkling homes added to the map so far. Batch 2 (this post) streets include :Arthur Ct., Carlisle Ave., Cherry St., Cleveland St., Collins Ave, Doane Road, Essex Ave, Finch Lane, Gloucester Avenue, Honeysuckle Road, Lupine, Maplewood (near Poplar bend), Marchant, Millet St., Montvale Avenue, Mystic Ave., Reynard, Riverside Ave., Sargent St., Shore Hill Road, Riverside Ave., Thatcher, Thornhill Way, Thurston Point, Warner St., Washington St (at Piraino), Washington St. (near Capt. Hooks), Wheeler Street, Whittemore St.
First Batch streets: Centennial Drive, Cherry St (near OโMaley), Crestwood Ter. – Skywood Ter. (off harrison), Derby St., Elizabeth Road, Essex Ave / Rt. 133 (between Kent Circle and Little River), Fleetwood Dr., Friend Ct., Green St., Grove St &Colonial, Grove near Maplewood, Hampden & Gaffney, Hodgkin St., Lendall St off Harrison, Lupine Lane, Maplewood at Derby, corner Mt Vernon & Oak St, Perkins St., Poplar St., Reservoir Road, Reynard St., Spruce St., Starknaught, Washington St. (between Azorean and the rotary)
countdown clock – Millet St.
More to come. photos: c. ryan, Dec. 6, 2022. Click or pinch and zoom to enlarge.
Map
Itโs easy touring whether by car or via smartphone, desktop, or preferred device. Grab a hot chocolate and go or view from home! Imagination and themed repeat visits encouraged.
Notes about the map: This map is great in the embed mode because when you scroll down, each house photo(s) pop up, with a big arrow that directs you to that one point. From a desktop, hovering or right clicking the house icons reveal the photos for each pinpoint. For those who prefer a paper copy โwhich doubles as a seek and find sheetโclick on the three vertical dots and then select โprintโ (horizontal mode best) from pull down menu. You can also google search Holiday Lights and Cocoa Drives Good Morning Gloucester.
Finch Lane twinkling tree, Thurston Point Rudolph with your nose so bright, Cleveland chatoyant
Beauty, light, and kindness
Tis’ the season of lights! Bright and colorful festivals of light illuminate dark nights heightening religious and secular celebrations and traditions around the world. October – February holidays include: Diwali, Bodhi Day, Lucia’s Day, Winter Solstice, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanza, New Year’s, Lunar New Year, Teng Chieh, and many more.
Reminder! tomorrow Dec. 10, 2022
Gloucester’s Lobster trap tree lighting 4:30pm culminates Gloucester’s enchanting Middle Street Walk (program here) all day 10-4:30pm! Holiday Delights 1pm at the Legion. https://middlestreetwalk.org/
Gloucester 100 sparkling homes added to the map so far. Streets include: Centennial Drive, Cherry St (near O’Maley), Derby St., Elizabeth Road, Essex Ave / Rt. 133 (between Kent Circle and Little River), Fleetwood Dr., Friend Ct., Green St., Grove St &Colonial, Grove near Maplewood, Hampden & Gaffney, Hodgkin St., Lendall St off Harrison, Lupine Lane, Maplewood at Derby, corner Mt Vernon & Oak St, Perkins St., Poplar St., Reservoir Road, Reynard St., Skywood Terrace off Harrison, Spruce St., Starknaught, Washington St. (between Azorean and the rotary)
Bright Nights and Sights.
If youโre looking for holiday cheer any day of the week, you canโt beat the New England charm of twinkling homes and neighborhoods in Gloucester, Massachusetts. For the 6th year in a row, enjoy a selection of seasonal lights and Christmas displays on Gloucester houses. Many streets join in together, glittering, and have for years. Every year is unique. With each passing new day more homes are decorated. Since 2019, the year’s curated selection –on average some 200+ homes– has been google mapped and each pinpoint has a photo(s).
Scroll down to see the first batch of photos for the 2022 map (as of December 4, 2022), and 2022 trends further down. More homes and neighborhoods will be added, so be sure to check back.
Photos: C. Ryan, Nov. 24, 28, and Dec. 4, 2022
2022 Trends
Trends so far? 2022 is looking like The Year of “JOY” signs, which by the way is an easy & cheery Ispy addition for Holiday Lights and Cocoa Drives. Also, illuminated green sequined wreaths and evergreen kissing ball pairs framing doors.
2022 map
It’s easy touring whether by car or via smartphone, desktop, or preferred device. Grab a hot chocolate and go or view from home! Imagination and themed repeat visits encouraged.
Notes about the map: This map is great in the embed mode because when you scroll down, each house photo(s) pop up, with a big arrow that directs you to that one point. From a desktop, hovering or right clicking the house icons reveal the photos for each pinpoint. For those who prefer a paper copy –which doubles as a seek and find sheet–click on the three vertical dots and then select “print” (horizontal mode best) from pull down menu. You can also google search Holiday Lights and Cocoa Drives Good Morning Gloucester.
Good Morning Gloucester 