Date: Fri 29-Jan-1999

Publication: Ant

Author: LAURAB

Quick Words:

Lynn-Beach-Vose

Full Text:

The Lynn Beach Painters: Art Along The North Shore

By Laura Beach

LYNN, MASS. What started in 1991 as an initiative of The Massachusetts

Painters Project of the Vose Archive, Inc., has resulted in an impressive

exhibition and catalogue, and in the formal recognition of a distinctive group

of coastal New England painters.

Through April 16, the cumulative benefits of the inquiry are on display at the

Lynn Museum. After closing at the museum's galleries at 125 Green Street, "The

Lynn Beach Painters: Art Along the North Shore 1880-1920" will travel to

Heritage Plantation in Sandwich, Mass., where it remains from May 17 to

October 23.

The presentation jointly acknowledges for the first time seven artists of the

1880s and 1890s: Nathaniel L. Berry, Edward Burrill, William Partridge Burpee,

C.E.L. Green, T. Clark Oliver, Edward A. Page and Charles H. Woodbury. Shaped

by local event and custom, but dramatically stimulated by progressive French

and Dutch painting, they depicted working beaches and trafficked waters from

Revere to Marblehead.

William Bradford and his teacher, Albert Van Beest, first painted the

shoreline, marshes and fish shacks of Lynn, Swampscott and Nahant as early as

the 1850s. By 1870, when the Mandatory Drawing Act was passed in

Massachusetts, Lynn's artistic life had widened considerably.

The state's second largest town, a shoemaking capital and seaside resort, was

a center for arts patronage. Residents supported shopfront exhibitions,

attended auctions and, in 1876, helped found the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Organized in response to the Mandatory Drawing Act, the Lynn Evening Drawing

School offered free public instruction. Intended in part as vocational

training for immigrants, the classes brought local artists together to share

notes, then gallery and studio space. Four of the Lynn Beach Painters were

instructors at the school.

Most were also members of the Boston Art Club, ten miles away in the nation's

art capital. Says Lynn Museum director Kenneth C. Turino, "Through it they

were exposed to Monet. The Lynn Beach Painters were among the first American

artists to see Impressionism."

The term "Lynn Beach Painters" was coined by D. Roger Howlett, an art

historian, fine arts dealer and author of The Lynn Beach Painters: Art Along

The North Shore 1880-1920. In the catalogue accompanying the exhibition,

Howlett, who has long been interested in William Partridge Burpee, writes, "I

became convinced that there was more than a passing similarity in the works of

Burpee and six of his contemporaries who painted along the shore just north of

Boston in the 1880s and the 1890s."

Several seminal studies pointed the direction for further inquiry. In addition

to Howlett's research on Burpee, published by Copley Square Press in 1991,

organizers referred to studies of Nathaniel L. Berry by Kathy Wrynn; C.E.L.

Green by John Hardy Wright and Frederic Alan Sharf, the latter an important

collector of North Shore paintings; and Charles Woodbury by Joan Loria and

Warren Seamens. Woodbury, the founder of the Ogunquit art colony in Maine and

the best known of the Lynn Beach Painters, was additionally honored this past

summer in catalogues published by the Ogunquit Museum of Art and by Maine

auctioneer George Young.

Kenneth Turino's first exposure to the group was in 1980, when the Essex

Institute mounted a retrospective of the work of C.E.L. Green. The exhibit

marked the beginning of the current revival, and planted a seed of inspiration

that was realized when Turino became director of what was then the Lynn

Historical Society in 1986.

"Nine years ago," Turino explains, "we got a call from the Vose Archives. They

were identifying all artists born in certain Massachusetts counties before

1900. Lynn was chosen. They gave us a grant to go through our collections and

records, and to bring an art historian on board. He was Roger Howlett."

The grant required that Howlett write a brochure and deliver a lecture. Both

activities stimulated further interest in the Lynn Beach Painters, which lead

to the book and the exhibition. Howlett was instrumental in helping to secure

everything from funding for the project to a printer in Hong Kong.

Much subsequent research was undertaken by Lynn Museum curator Heather Johnson

Reid, who wrote catalogue entries and compiled useful artists' biographies.

"The Boston Art Club records were very helpful," the scholar recalls. "We also

went through newspapers of the day to see what was being shown in Lynn. We

checked out an old train schedule. It was faster to take the train to Boston

then than it is today! The artists were able to go in, look at an exhibit,

have lunch, and be home to attend drawing school. Looking at art was very much

part of their progression."

The Lynn Museum, which only recently changed its name, makes its home an 1836

house that was expanded in the 1920s. In addition to four Eighteenth Century

period rooms, it has a skylit wing with two floors of changing exhibitions.

"The Lynn Beach Painters" occupies the top floor.

Under Reid's watchful eye, 52 paintings were hung against walls painted a deep

Chinese red. "The sight of all those gold frames against the red is pretty

impressive," the curator says. "We chose a color that was like the salons of

France. We wanted people to understand that these artists were seeing this

kind of work."

She continues, "The show is in one gallery. What's nice is that you see all

the paintings in one fell swoop. We limited wall text to large panels

summarizing the major ideas. For instance, one panel is on the Swampscott

dory, a boat that was often depicted. Another panel talks about the working

beach. You see scenes of harvesting seaweed or pulling in the nets. There is a

panel on favorite painting spots, such as Blaney Beach and Egg Rock, and one

on the early history of marine painting in this area."

The paintings, which show many influences, range from Barbizon to

Impressionist in style and palette. Chosen for the catalogue's cover is C.E.L.

Green's "Lynn Beach From Nahant," an evocative shore scene of circa 1900.

Throughout the exhibit, paintings are accompanied by period photographs of the

same settings from the Lynn Museum's extensive archives.

Reproduced on a smaller scale are two exhibition highlights, "Shore View,

Swampscott" by W.P. Burpee and "Shore View, Swampscott-Lynn" by Charles H.

Woodbury, both of 1888. "The same theme, painted the same year, by two

different artists. The juxtaposition is wonderful," marvels Turino. The works

were borrowed from the Farnsworth Library and Art Museum and from the

collection of Ann P. Vose.

"In their day, these painters did quite well," Turino notes. "Several sent

work to the National Academy of Design in New York. Woodbury's reputation was

massive when he died in 1940. But his reputation dropped."

Since 1980, regional exhibitions have boosted both reputations and prices.

"They are a good group of painters, and still not terribly expensive,"

reflects North Berwick, Me., auctioneer George Young. "The all-time record for

Woodbury is around $96,000, but a typical Woodbury sells for $2,000 to

$10,000. Sometimes the little beach scenes go for $10,000 to $15,000." Adds

Beverly, Mass., auctioneer Frank Kaminski, "I appraised a collection of C.E.L.

Greens. They ranged from $4,500 to $11,500. Pages bring $3,500 to $5,000."

"There could be arguments that the Lynn Beach Painters did not exist as a

group," Howlett writes. "There could also be arguments for the inclusion of at

least a few other painters in the group; George Wasson, Clement Grant or

Edward Stewart could each be added if more information on their Lynn paintings

appeared."

"We worked on the project a good solid two years, and talked about it since I

arrived four years ago," says Reid. "We delayed the exhibit by a year. I'm

glad we did, because we found so much that was wonderful." Howlett, Turino and

the curator agree that more work is needed. "The strong connection of Lynners

to Boston arts organizations has not been, to my knowledge, mentioned before,

nor have the Lynn art organizations such as Silas Barton's Gallery or the Lynn

Art Club," writes Howlett, who urges the development of a list of names of a

second generation of Lynn marine painters active through the 1950s. Adds

Turino, "We hope to publish an article on the effect of the Mandatory Drawing

Act on Lynn."

These ambitions aside, "The Lynn Beach Painters" has brought a new audience to

a town once famous for its stunning coastal landscape. "The paintings are

accomplished and beautiful," says Turino. He adds, "The Monet show just closed

at the MFA, Boston. We've had several visitors tell us they'd seen both shows,

but liked the Lynn Beach Painters better."

On February 11, D. Roger Howlett will lecture on "Picturesque Beaches and

Itinerant Artists: At Home And Abroad With The Lynn Beach Painters." The talk

will explore the destinations that most attracted the Lynn painters,

particularly New Lynn, England, where a local variety of Barbizon-style

painting flourished. Several Lynn painters also traveled to Holland. Howlett's

lecture will start at 8 pm at the Lynn Heritage State Park. The snow date is

February 18.

The Lynn Museum is open Monday through Saturday from 1 to 4 pm at 125 Green

Street. Telephone 781/592-2465. Lynn Beach Painters: Art Along The North Shore

1880-1920 sells for $35 hardcover, $20 softcover, and may be ordered through

the museum. The hardcover edition is additionally distributed by Northeastern

University Press in Boston.