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Water as Muse ReflectionsRefractions & Flow 272429 Vose Reflections_Q10.qxp_Fall2017 8/30/17 7:58 PM Page 2 272429 Vose Reflections_Q10.qxp_Fall2017 8/30/17 7:58 PM Page 3

Water as Muse

ReflectionsRefractions & Flow

October 7 - November 4, 2017 272429 Vose Reflections_Q10.qxp_Fall2017 8/30/17 7:58 PM Page 4

Appealing to the Senses by Marcia L. Vose

Vose Galleries is pleased to present an exhi- Warren Sheppard’s (1858-1937) Tranquil bition that focuses on how over twenty visual Sunrise (p. 16) shows the artist’s ability to capture artists interpret the effects of water. As far back as both the reflection off the water as the sun awak- the fifteenth century, the great artist and Renais- ens, and also allows us to look through the water sance intellectual Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) to see the refracted color patterns underneath. A declared water to be the “driving force of all na- generation earlier, famed nineteenth-century artist ture.” In the ensuing centuries, artists, musicians Alfred T. Bricher (1837-1908), one of the premier and writers have continued Leonardo’s fascination Luminists, painted all along the Eastern seaboard, with water in all its forms, with oceans, bays, lakes and became famous for painting the reflected and rivers among the many visages that inspire a shoreline against diffused atmospheric effects, as wide range of artists. seen in Grand Manan (p. 18).

It takes many years of study before an artist Two artists in our exhibition epitomize de- can master aqueous subjects, and artists learn to pictions of the movement, or flow, of water. focus on the reflection and refraction of light upon Around the turn of the century, Charles Woodbury water, as well as flow or movement. Reflections (1864-1940) became fascinated by the movement of are the result of light scattered upon the surface of water, and used his training as an engineer to dra- water, and can easily be seen in Reflections of the matically depict the ocean crashing against rocks Day (p. 10) by Liz Haywood-Sullivan (b. 1956) or or ambling slowly along the shore. According to Boats in Harbor, Gloucester (p. 26) by Jane Peterson his son David, Woodbury always “made the water (1876-1965). Refraction can be more difficult to de- in his pictures move; more, he could make it roar, fine. Perhaps the clearest form can be seen in a too!”1 swimming pool, where light passes through water rather than reflecting from it, which can be seen in the aquamarine swimming pool background on Woodbury’s colleague, Frederick Judd our cover. But in painting nature’s waterscapes Waugh (1861-1940), who had been trained at the there is color underneath the water that changes Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and in Eu- the color of refracted light. rope, moved in 1907 to Provincetown, Massachu- setts, to study the ocean, and spent the remainder

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of his career devoted to painting the sea. He also We invite our viewers to employ all of their spent nearly forty summers among a coterie of senses in responding to the many different drama- artists on the island of Monhegan, Maine, sur- tizations of water in this exhibition. Although we rounded by the Atlantic Ocean, where he pro- first form an overarching visual impression of an duced canvases exploring water in all its artwork, the most dramatic paintings of water also complexities. Waugh noted, “It is impossible to engage our other senses. Who among us hasn’t paint the sea in literal movement or to carry to the heard the sound of waves breaking, been thrilled nostrils the tang of the salt sea brine, yet all these by the bracing feel of plunging into a pristine lake, are somehow felt in a work of art. Being able to smelled the sea’s briny imprint on an oyster or present such feeling is where the artist should tasted pure spring water from a mountain stream? excel."2 Waugh’s achievements as a marine painter Of crucial significance, our senses intertwine are clearly demonstrated in his dramatic scene of closely with our emotions and expand the reaction rocks and surf, Foam and Cloud (p. 15). beyond our visual connection with a work of art. We hope that the examples shown in this exhibi- tion will reach our viewers in this most personal For those of us inhabiting colder climes, way. paintings of frozen water and snow have tradi- tionally been the focus of many artists of the re- gion. Walter Launt Palmer (1854-1932) was one of 1. David O. Woodbury, “Charles H. Woodbury, the Marine the first great American snow painters. His paint- Painter who was a graduate Engineer - A Personal Apprecia- tion,” Charles H. Woodbury, N.A., Vose Galleries, 1978, p. 7. ing of Kinderhook Creek (p. 5), which runs from 2. Artist’s obituary, New York Times, September 11, 1940. western Massachusetts through New York state to the Hudson River, is a scintillating display of light filtering through the trees to cast delicate pinkish shadows upon the snow. Reflections on the chill- ing water and the refracted stones beneath the creek all contribute to the shivers we experience while gazing into the scene.

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The shelving shores on either side Were smooth with crusted snow, And hung with tiny icicles Like jewels in a row. A net of branches, black and bare, Above it met and crossed, And every slender twig was twined With filaments of frost.

The sunless world for many a mile Was bleak and white and chill, With snow upon the furrowed field, And silence on the hill; But still between its frozen banks The brooklet danced along, And never ceased by night or day The music of its song.

For at its heart a living spring Sent up its silver spray; Like hope within the human breast, It kept the ice away. And through the winter’s bitter cold, Its dark and silent hours, Yet still its babbling voice foretold The coming of the flowers. -Minna Irving, The Winter Brook, 1898

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Walter Launt Palmer (1854-1932), Kinderhook Creek Oil on canvas, 32 x 24 inches, signed lower right: W. L. PALMER 5 272429 Vose Reflections_Q10.qxp_Fall2017 8/30/17 7:58 PM Page 4

John Joseph Enneking (1841-1916), Trout Brook Oil on canvas, 24 1/4 x 30 inches, signed and dated lower left: Enneking 10, 1910

“...the trout brook gurgling through carpeted woods around mossy banks and lichen-covered rocks, gathering in a sparkling pool, so clear you would wish to wade in it and scatter the startled fingerlings to their sheltered nooks...” -“The Work of John J. Enneking,” Ralph Davol, The American Magazine of Art, June 1917, p. 322 6 272429 Vose Reflections_Q10.qxp_Fall2017 8/30/17 7:58 PM Page 5

Frederick John Mulhaupt (1871-1938), Autumn River Landscape Oil on canvas, 34 1/8 x 28 1/8 inches, signed lower right: MULHAUPT 7 272429 Vose Reflections_Q10.qxp_Fall2017 8/30/17 7:58 PM Page 6

“One gasps a little at the skill of mind and hand able to conjure up the exact tonal relationship of sky and water on autumn evenings to remember how marsh grasses lift their tips above the tidewater along the…shallows, to know the anatomy of trees, to recreate from a full mind the picture of land clutching the regular horizons of the scene.” -Unidentified newspaper clipping, November 1936, from Benson’s scrapbook (Bedford, Faith Andrews. The Sporting Art of Frank W. Benson. Boston: Godine, 2000)

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Frank Weston Benson (1862-1951), Ducks Rising Watercolor and graphite on paper, 20 x 25 inches, signed and dated lower left: F. W. Benson / '27, 1927

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“Like the sky, which it mirrors, water is very emotional. It gives clues to the weather by the nature of its color and whether the reflections are mirrored, choppy or almost nonexistent.” -Liz Haywood-Sullivan, Painting Brilliant Skies and Water in Pastel North Light Books, 2013

“My internal and external selves merge when I am with the sea. I experience a sense of wholeness. The ocean is an all encompassing and very public phe- nomenon and yet, to me it is the most introspective, solitary and private place on earth.” -Don Demers Turning Tides, Changing Light Vose Galleries, 2010

Liz Haywood-Sullivan (b. 1956), Reflections of the Day Pastel on paper, 36 x 24 inches, signed lower right: Haywood-Sullivan, 2005 10 272429 Vose Reflections_Q10.qxp_Fall2017 8/30/17 7:58 PM Page 9

Donald Demers (b. 1956), Clearing Skies over Chatham, Massachusetts Oil on mounted linen, 20 x 24 inches, signed lower left: DONALD DEMERS, 2010 11 272429 Vose Reflections_Q10.qxp_Fall2017 8/30/17 7:58 PM Page 10

A life on the ocean wave, A home on the rolling deep, Where the scattered waters rave, And the winds their revels keep! Like an eagle caged, I pine On this dull, unchanging shore: Oh! give me the flashing brine, The spray and the tempest's roar!

-Epes Sargent, A Life on the Ocean Wave, 1838

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John Whorf (1903-1959), Cruising Watercolor and graphite on paper, 25 1/4 x 22 3/4 inches, signed lower right: John Whorf 13 272429 Vose Reflections_Q10.qxp_Fall2017 8/30/17 7:58 PM Page 12

“Charles Woodbury, of Boston and Ogunquit, Maine, with Frederick Waugh…of New York are of a younger group of painters…When [Woodbury] paints a mid-ocean, one feels that it is a mid- ocean and that the land is 2000 miles away. He is pre-eminently the psychologist of the sea—a great interpretive artist. It is the power of the sea that one feels in the work of Frederick J. Waugh…Waugh has given a lifetime to the study of the ocean…He is justly famous for his vigor and his mastery of wave form and movement.” -“The Sea in Art,” W. D. Starkweather, The Mentor, August 1, 1921, p. 22

Charles H. Woodbury (1864-1940), Windswept Seas Oil on canvas mounted to Masonite, 17 x 21 inches, signed lower left: Woodbury 14 272429 Vose Reflections_Q10.qxp_Fall2017 8/30/17 7:58 PM Page 13

Frederick Judd Waugh (1861-1940), Foam and Cloud Oil on canvas board, 25 x 29 13/16 inches, signed lower right: Waugh 15 272429 Vose Reflections_Q10.qxp_Fall2017 8/30/17 7:58 PM Page 14

Warren W. Sheppard (1858-1937), Tranquil Sunrise Oil on canvas, 22 x 36 inches, signed lower right: WARREN SHEPPARD

“The surface of the sea slowly became transparent and lay rippling and sparkling until the dark stripes were almost rubbed out. Slowly the arm that held the lamp raised it higher and then higher until a broad flame became visible; an arc of fire burnt on the rim of the horizon, and all round it the sea blazed gold.” -Virginia Woolf, The Waves, 1931 16 272429 Vose Reflections_Q10.qxp_Fall2017 8/30/17 7:58 PM Page 15

William Trost Richards (1833-1905), Cornish Coast Oil on canvas, 28 1/8 x 40 1/8 inches, signed lower left: Wm. T. Richards

“I watch and watch it, try to disentangle its push and leap and recoil, make myself ready to catch the tricks of the big breakers and am always startled out of my self possession by the thunder and the rush...” -William Trost Richards, from an 1879 letter describing the surf at Chesil Beach, England (Ferber, Linda S. William Trost Richards 1833-1905. New York: The Brooklyn Museum, 1973) 17 272429 Vose Reflections_Q10.qxp_Fall2017 8/30/17 7:58 PM Page 16

Alfred Thompson Bricher (1837-1908), Grand Manan Oil on canvas, 15 1/8 x 32 1/8 inches, signed lower right: AT BRICHER 18 272429 Vose Reflections_Q10.qxp_Fall2017 8/30/17 7:58 PM Page 17

“Bricher delighted to paint the smooth sandy beaches and rock- bound coasts of New England on calm summer days…he had good color and atmosphere and re- markable facility in the rendering of the familiar scenes he loved.” -“The Late Alfred T. Bricher,” American Art News, November 21, 1908, p. 4

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Mabel May Woodward (1877-1945), Boston Harbor Oil on canvas on board, 10 3/4 x 13 1/2 inches, signed lower right: M M Woodward

“Man’s life is like a tide that weaves the sea within its daily web. It rises, surges, swells, and grows,—a pause— then comes the evening ebb.” -Frederic Ridgely Torrence, The House of a Hundred Lights, 1900

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Frederick John Mulhaupt (1871-1938), Evening Glow, Gloucester Harbor Oil on canvas, 25 1/8 x 30 1/8 inches, signed lower left: MULHAUPT, circa 1925

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Edmund Marion Ashe (1867-1941), All in a Day's Work Oil on canvas, 27 1/8 x 32 1/8 inches, signed lower left: E. M. ASHE 22 272429 Vose Reflections_Q10.qxp_Fall2017 8/30/17 7:58 PM Page 21

Harry Aiken Vincent (1864-1931), Rockport Harbor Oil on canvas, 25 1/4 x 30 1/8 inches, signed lower left: H. A. VINCENT 23 272429 Vose Reflections_Q10.qxp_Fall2017 8/30/17 7:58 PM Page 22

Arthur Clifton Goodwin (1864-1929), Boston Public Garden Pastel on board, 16 5/16 x 20 7/8 inches, signed lower right: A. C. GOODWIN

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William Samuel Horton (1865-1936), Grand Canal from the Rialto, Venice Oil on board, 25 1/8 x 30 1/4 inches, signed and dated lower left: WILLIAM S. HORTON – 1910

“The blue water is remarkably interesting. Painted with great freedom, the illusion of movement and depth especially if we stand some distance away from the canvas, is absolutely true to natural effect.” -”The Art of William S. Horton,” Adrian Bury, The Connoisseur Year Book, 1959 25 272429 Vose Reflections_Q10.qxp_Fall2017 8/30/17 7:59 PM Page 24

Jane Peterson (1876-1965), Boats in Harbor, Gloucester Oil on canvas, 29 1/2 x 39 1/2 inches, signed lower right: JANE PETERSON

“Miss Jane Peterson uses strong colors and a broad brush to give the facts about docks and fishing craft and harbors in a somewhat knock-you-down fashion.” -Art World, March 1917 (Joseph, J. Jonathan. Jane Peterson, An American Artist. Boston, 1981)

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Walter Farndon (1876-1964), Half Moon Oil on canvas, 36 1/4 x 30 1/8 inches, signed lower left: WALTER FARNDON 27 272429 Vose Reflections_Q10.qxp_Fall2017 8/30/17 7:59 PM Page 26

Paul Tatsumi Nagano (b. 1938), The Beach, Menton Watercolor on paper, 22 1/4 x 30 inches, signed and dated lower right: Nagano 77, 1977

“It does seem, given the places I have chosen to visit and work in (the islands of Lipari, Capri, Hawaii, Japan) that water is of considerable importance to me as both subject and environment. No doubt, being born and raised in Hawaii, a dot in the Pacific, has played a part in this.” -Paul Nagano, Nagano: Favorite Places, The Art Complex Museum, Duxbury, MA, 1982, p. 4 28 272429 Vose Reflections_Q10.qxp_Fall2017 8/30/17 7:59 PM Page 27

Gerrit A. Beneker (1882-1934), Conwell Wharf, Provincetown, Massachusetts Oil on canvas, 16 1/8 x 20 1/8 inches, signed and dated lower right: Gerrit A. Beneker 1917

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Hermann Dudley Murphy (1867-1945), Music Boats Oil on canvas, 20 1/8 x 30 1/4 inches, monogrammed lower left, circa 1908

“People go to Paris to study and to Venice to paint.” -Hermann Dudley Murphy, Boston Herald, November 1908 (Hermann Dudley Murphy (1867-1945) Realism Married to Idealism Most Exquisitely. New York: Graham Gallery, 1982)

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Robert Vickrey (1926-2011), Cassandra in the Rain Egg tempera on Masonite panel, 12 3/8 x 17 inches, signed lower right: Robert Vickrey

Let the rain kiss you The rain makes running pools in the gutter Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops The rain plays a little sleep song on our roof at night Let the rain sing you a lullaby And I love the rain. The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk -Langston Hughes, April Rain Song, 1932 31 272429 Vose Reflections_Q10.qxp_Fall2017 8/30/17 7:59 PM Page 30

Warren Prosperi (b. 1949), Stripping Out Line Oil on canvas, 33 x 50 inches, monogrammed, 2011

I wind about, and in and out, And here and there a foamy flake And draw them all along, and flow With here a blossom sailing, Upon me, as I travel To join the brimming river And here and there a lusty trout, With many a silvery waterbreak For men may come and men may go, And here and there a grayling, Above the golden gravel, But I go on for ever. -Alfred Lord Tennyson, The Brook, 1884 32 272429 Vose Reflections_Q10.qxp_Fall2017 8/30/17 7:59 PM Page 31

Editor: Marcia L. Vose; Catalogue Design: Elizabeth Vose Frey; Art Photography: Drew C. Pate; Writing: Marcia L. Vose Additional Research: Courtney S. Kopplin, Catharine L. Holmes, Tyler M. Prince, Nora A. Owens. © 2017 Copyright Vose Galleries, LLC. All rights reserved. Printing by Puritan Capital, Hollis, NH. 272429 Vose Reflections_Q10.qxp_Fall2017 8/30/17 7:59 PM Page 32

V OSE Fine American Art for Six Generations EST 1841 G ALLERIES LLC 238 Newbury Street . Boston . MA . Telephone 617.536.6176 . Toll Free 866.862.4871 [email protected] . www.vosegalleries.com