Culturally Curious: Seaside Escapes
On Thursday, August 17, 2023 at 7:00 p.m., I watched the webinar Seaside Escapes: The Art & Architecture of the New England Coast lead by Jane Oneail of Culturally Curious. I have previously watched two talks by Oneail: Revolutionary Design: Modern Architecture in New England in May 2023 and George Tooker: Modern Life & Magical Realism in June 2023. Just like for the past two talks, the event was sponsored by the Greater Manchester Integrated Library Cooperative or GMILCS, which describes itself as “a nonprofit consortium of public and academic libraries in New Hampshire”.
As a preamble to the main talk, Oneail began by describing the many styles of beach paintings created by American artists, including the idyllic seascapes of John Frederick Kensett, the churning seas of Albert Bierstadt, crowded tourist attractions William Glackens, abstract dunes by Charles Demuth, and pop style of Roy Lichtenstein. Oneail then broke her talk into three parts: Artist Colonies, Artist & the Ocean, and Summer Homes.
While artist colonies have disappeared from summertime New England, Oneail noted that few were as robust as Old Lyme Art Colony at the house of Florence Griswold (now a museum named in her honor) during the early 20th century. The Georgian style mansion had rooms for rent at $7 per week (worth the equivalent of $260 about 125 years later). American Impressionists from New York City and Boston flocked there on a Bohemian vacation. Despite its bargain prices, artist could not always pay. Oneail related a time in 1906 where Willard Metcalf painted May Night as his monthly rent, but Griswold insisted he put it in an art contest. Griswold had great taste, as Metcalf won first prize and $1,000 in the competition (about $34,000 today), easily earning his rent. The painting now resides in the National Gallery of Art. Other artists in the self-proclaimed “Hot Air Club” included William Robinson, Clark Voorhees, Henry Rankin Poore, and Childe Hassam. Often, artists would paint a door panel in the dining room as a gift for their beloved landlady.
Oneail changed topics to the relationship between artists and the ocean, beginning with the iconic work of Winslow Homer. After beginning his career as a painter during the Civil War, Homer later turned to nostalgic scenes of antebellum, pre-industrialized life in the North. After moving to a converted carriage house Prout’s Neck, ME, Homer turned his focus to the sea and eventually abandoned human subjects altogether. Iconic paintings like The Fog Warning (1885), The Herring Net (1885), and The Undertow (1886) shows the clash of people versus the ocean, while later works like Northeaster (1895) and Weatherbeaten (1894) show the power of the water. Today, tourists can visit his home courtesy of Portland Museum of Art and walk the nearby Marginal Way in Ogunquit, ME.
Childe Hassam spent most of the year in Boston, painting At Dusk (Boston Common at Twilight) (1891), which Oneail claimed is the best-selling postcard MFA Boston. During the summer belonged to the Old Lyme Art Colony and painted Bridge at Old Lyme (1908) there, but he traveled north to the Isles of Shoals. While there, his muse was Celia Thaxter, and he painted multiple scenes of her poppy garden, with an 1890 version now held at MET and an 1891 version at the National Gallery of Art. Thaxter’s lovely, restored garden is available to tour courtesy of Shoals Marine Laboratory.
The third and youngest of the artists presented by Oneail was Edward Hopper, better known for his paintings of urban alienation in New York City. Melancholy pieces like Woman at the Automat (1927) and Nighthawks (1942) are Hopper staples. When he and his wife moved to South Truro, MA in 1934, his work changed to reflect the ocean environment, albeit in a consistently alienating way. Oneail quoted Hopper as saying, “I suppose I’m not very human. What I wanted to do was paint sunlight on the side of the house.” His paintings of Ground Swell (1939), Rooms for Tours (1945), High Noon (1949), Cape Cod Evening (1939), and Cape Cod Morning (1950) all depict people or buildings seemingly alone in the environment. Other paintings, like Rooms by the Sea (1951), have a disorienting perspective, as if a building is about to fall into the water. The Cape Ann Art Museum in Gloucester, MA currently has an exhibit of Hopper’s paintings, so I will put it on my calendar to visit before it ends in mid-October!
Oneail ended her talk with an overview of several “cottages” in Newport. In contrast to the super cute but super expensive gingerbread houses on Martha’s Vineyard, the Newport Mansions are ridiculously gargantuan. During the second half of the 19th century, the wealthy elite travelled halfway between New York City and Boston to enjoy the waterfront views on the peninsula. Architect Seth C. Bradford built 4-story, 37,000 square foot Chateau-sur-Mer for William Shepherd Wetmore in 1852. Inspired by the Palace of Versailles, silver heiress Theresa Fair Oelrichs ordered the construction of 28,000 square foot Rosecliff, which was completed in 1902. Not to be outdone, William Kissam Vanderbilt hired architect Richard Morris Hunt to design Marble House as a birthday present for his thirty-nine year old wife, Alva. The house was never fully occupied, as they divorce three years later. To trump all his neighbors and relatives Cornelius Vanderbilt built The Breakers, a 70-room, 125,000 square foot Italian Renaissance style palace on 14 waterfront acres. Today, all of these mansions are viewable from the Cliff Walk.
In contrast to these elegant Newport mansions constructed by acclaimed architects for the ridiculously wealthy, Beauport Sleeper-McCann House in Gloucester, MA was the passion project of interior designer Henry Davis Sleeper. I previously visited this property and marveled at its whimsical, disjointed structure, but I enjoyed the reminder of his chaotic Octagon Room, Colonial Kitchen, and “Golden Step” dining room.
As always, Oneail’s talk was fast-paced and engaging with plenty of gorgeous photographs of paintings and architecture. Her vivid descriptions of each artwork, along with the closed captioning included in Zoom, made the presentation highly accessible. As always, I look forward to future Culturally Curious presentations.