James Jeffrey Grant (1883–1960)
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VOSE GALLERIES OF BOSTON James Jeffrey Grant (1883–1960) and his North Shore Contemporaries CAPE ANN PAINTERS DURING THE 1930 S AND 1940 S October 27 – December 7, 2005 JJG-44 A Summer Afternoon, Gloucester, Massachusetts Watercolor on paper 20 x 27 inches James Jeffrey Grant (1883–1960) $19,500 and his North Shore Contemporaries CAPE ANN PAINTERS DURING THE 1930 S AND 1940 S Catalogue designed by Claudia Arnoff Photography by Bill Kipp Abbot W. Vose and Robert C. Vose III, Co-Presidents Marcia L. Vose, Vice President Carol L. Chapuis, Director of Administration Nancy Allyn Jarzombek, Managing Director Julie Simpkins, Artist-in-Residence, Preparator Courtney S. Kopplin, Registrar Carey L. Vose, Sales Associate Front Cover: James Jeffrey Grant, West End of Main Street, Gloucester Elizabeth W. Vose, Sales Associate Oil on canvas, 30 x 25 inches, PRICE UPON REQUEST Megan Crosby, Gallery Associate Back Cover: Emma Fordyce MacRae, Foxgloves Oil on canvas, 36 x 30 inches, PRICE UPON REQUEST Printing by Capital Offset Co., Inc., Concord, New Hampshire © 2005 VOSE GALLERIES OF BOSTON , I NC . James Jeffrey Grant (1883–1960) and his North Shore Contemporaries CAPE ANN PAINTERS DURING THE 1930 S AND 1940 S October 27 – December 7, 2005 VOSE GALLERIES OF BOSTON 238 Newbury Street • Boston, MA 02116 Tel. 617.536.6176•Fax 617.247.8673 [email protected] •www.vosegalleries.com FOREWORD “I have a collection of fifty paintings that I inherited from my uncle and wondered if you would be interested in seeing them.” That is the call that every art dealer dreams about and earlier this year just such an inquiry came to us from the Midwest. We had never seen a work by J. Jeffrey Grant and after the photographs arrived, we hopped a plane to Chicago and promptly purchased the entire group of fifty paintings. Grant was a Chicago-based artist who joined the influx of artists who came from all over the country during the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s to paint the charming fishing villages and breathtaking scenery found in the environs of Gloucester, Rockport, Annisquam and Lanesville. While Grant witnessed the near crippling of Chicago during the Depression, Gloucester’s bustling port and quarries provided employment and a thriving merchant class. The active artist community supplied camaraderie and held three large exhibitions every summer. Little has been written about Cape Ann painters during the Great Depression and World War II. Our exhibition examines Grant’s life and work during the 30s and 40s along with twenty five other painters of the day who lived on the North Shore and exhibited at the North Shore Arts Association. Our direc - tor, Nancy Allyn Jarzombek, has written two thoughtful essays about these two decades that saw artists persevere in the face of economic hardship and worldwide upheaval. What was happening at Vose Galleries during the ’30s and ’40s? Oddly, after the crash of 1929, the gallery had its best two years in history in ’30 and ’31; in 1932, however, the art market col - lapsed almost overnight, and World War II prolonged economic recovery for many years. Robert C. Vose, Jr. (1911–1998) recounted in his memoirs, “It is hard to say what was popular in the 1930s. We might go for weeks without selling a single paint - ing. Our contemporary shows ran in the red. John Whorf was one exception. His watercolors sold readily at $100.” Marcia Latimore Vose Abbot W. Vose Robert C. Vose III 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It is always fun to delve into the life and times of a little-known artist. James Jeffrey Grant came to this country in 1907, at the age of twenty-four. Like many who immigrated to America, outsiders working their way into communities, he was an astute and empathetic observer of everyday life, and there was plenty to observe. The Gloucester that he records in this wonderful group of paintings is one that is both touched and untouched by current events. He captures hustle-bustle of people in the streets, the simplicity of the nineteenth-century architecture, and the timeless beauty of the water. Many assisted in the production of this catalogue and exhibition. I would like to thank David Hall and Tom Davies, both of whom freely and generously shared their considerable knowledge of the artistic communities in and around Gloucester. Stephanie Buck, Librarian at the Cape Ann Historical Museum was very helpful and pointed me in the right direction on more than one occasion. I am also most grateful to the Cape Ann Historical Museum for making photographs available for the catalogue. I am grateful for the capable assistance of the staff of Vose Galleries. My thanks to Megan Crosby for writing the artist biographies, Courtney Kopplin for organizing numerous publication and exhibition details, and Carol Chapuis for digging, with relish, into the early life of the artist. Siohban Wheeler did preliminary research. Beth Vose and Claire Shapleigh helped with photog - raphy. Julie Simpkins oversaw conservation and framing, and installed the exhibition with her usual sensitivity and strength. The Vose family, Terry, Bill, Marcia, Carey and Beth, found the treasure trove of paintings to begin with, without which this show would have remained only an idea. NAJ 3 In the Lane, Gloucester JJG-45 Watercolor on paper 21 x 23 3/4 inches $16,500 Table of Contents James Jeffrey Grant, Observer of Everyday Life . .6 by Nancy Allyn Jarzombek Artists in Gloucester to 1939, an Overview . .23 by Nancy Allyn Jarzombek Artist Biographies . .48 by Megan Crosby James Jeffrey Grant (1883–1960) Observer of Everyday Life Harbor View, East Gloucester JJG-35 Oil on canvas 26 x 30 inches RICE PON EQUEST 6 P U R Active during the first half of the 20 th century, James aspects of everyday village life specific to Gloucester—a Jeffrey Grant possessed a notable talent for observing and street filled with people running errands, a boatyard with portraying scenes of everyday life. The paintings collected carpenters, fishermen mending nets, or a wharf with an for this exhibition demonstrate Grant’s subtlety and gentle artist working at an easel. His paintings are sometimes read humor. He was well schooled in the European academic as nostalgic views of a long gone era, 3 but it is more tradition, and brought to his paintings, oils and watercolors accurate to say that Grant was a sensitive and empathetic alike, an intelligent and disciplined feeling for composition, recorder of life in Gloucester as he experienced it. Children form and color. At the same time he was an onlooker, not Playing, Gloucester (p. 8), for example, doesn’t romanticize judging but evaluating and sifting subject matter that pre - the past so much as it shows us what was, for the artist, sented itself to his discerning eye. present day: children playing in the dirt, laundry drying, trash in the alley, and a somewhat dilapidated set of back A prominent long-time member of the Chicago art steps. By the same token, In the Lane (p. 5) records a quiet community, Grant discovered Gloucester in the summer of morning in one of Gloucester’s working-class neighborhoods, 1931. The country had been plunged into economic chaos complete with crooked fences and a discarded lobster trap. by the Stock Market crash of 1929 and although there was One of his most interesting images, West End of Main pain enough to go around, the effects of the Great Depression Street, Gloucester (cover illustration), shows us a panorama —poverty, hunger, disease, malaise, strikes and protest of the old and the new that must have delighted Grant: a movements—were especially felt in Chicago, which had delivery truck next to a delivery cart drawn by horse, 19 th lost 50% of its manufacturing business seemingly overnight. century wood-frame houses and storefronts divided by By contrast, Gloucester must have seemed like paradise. crazy tilting telephone poles, women in long skirts, children Although affected by poverty and unemployment, Gloucester bare-footed, and even a man striding down the sidewalk was a village, free from the crush of suffering humanity. It with two fish dangling from one hand. had a fishing industry and granite quarries that kept locals employed. It also had a bustling seaport, timeless picturesque The facts of his life are spare; he left no papers or diaries buildings and wharfs, fresh air, and some of the best views nor was he a man to seek the spotlight. He was born and in the world. For the artist, it offered the support of a lively raised in Aberdeen, Scotland. By the accounts that survive artists’ community, three large exhibitions and numerous he appears to have been affable, mild-mannered and soft- smaller shows of art every summer, and the balm of steady, spoken, retaining a lilting Scottish burr throughout his quiet work in beautiful surroundings. life. He stood with a slight stoop and was described as being fastidious, but also likeable. 4 By his own account he Grant returned to Gloucester over the next twenty years, loved to travel and, second to painting, liked chess and staying in a summer rental, 1 and here his style developed football. 5 His father was an artist and a craftsman, by the and matured. He wrote, “My favorite sketching ground is name of George Grant, who was commissioned to do Gloucester, Mass. I like the old wharfs, boats, fishermen lacquer work for Queen Victoria in 1892, and who took his and quaint streets, spent many summers there.” Then he son on afternoon painting excursions into the countryside. added, “Think I’ll take back what I said about the old With ambitions to become a professional artist, James wharfs.