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Articles
If you have ever driven to Maine, you will have been greeted by a sign: “Welcome to Maine, The Way Life Should Be” as you cross state lines. Having lived in the Pine Tree State for nearly a decade, the…
To hear visitors speak about Fuller Craft Museum is like listening to someone speak of an old friend. They remember the last time they came, who they were with, and the occasion for their visit. They apologize for how long…
Winslow Homer (1836–1910) arrived at Prouts Neck, Maine, in 1883 a well-known, albeit critically controversial figure in the then-small circle of established American artists. Born in Boston in 1836 and trained as a commercial illustrator in the antebellum era, Homer…
In the 2012 Anniversary issue of Antiques & Fine Art, Peter Kenny, administrator of the Met’s American Wing, introduced readers to the landmark exhibition Duncan Phyfe: Master Cabinetmaker in New York at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which opened at…
In 2011, when Purvis Young’s Mary and Jesus (Fig. 1) realized a $25,000 (hammer) price at Slotin’s Fall Masterpiece Sale, it was a watershed moment for the Miami-based African-American folk artist who passed away a little over a year earlier…
Rich and poor, north and south, early Americans saw the world around them through a boozy haze. Where that alcohol came from—whether a fermented European grape or a distilled ear of Virginia corn; or out of a mahogany cellaret or…
The high ceilings and light-filled space of the entry reflect the relaxed mood of the house. Of the ensemble by the doorway, the wife claims she had no set theme but that the elements “just kind of work.” “I would…
World’s fairs have served to educate the public in human accomplishments through science and the arts, have forged links between cultures, and have set in motion events that might never otherwise have taken place. After his visit to the 1893…
Much of the early American painted tinware that survives today was made between the 1820s and the early 1900s. Tinsmiths created domestic and workplace items from relatively inexpensive and vulnerable material—sheets of rolled iron coated on both sides with shiny…
In November 1962, a group of seven men in Bath, Maine, organized the Marine Research Society of Bath, to write and publish a maritime history of the area. Although the possibility of establishing a museum was discussed, most were leery…
The Anglo-American tradition of jewelry to mourn and remember a deceased loved one began to proliferate after the execution of Charles I in 1649, when royalists wore rings or small lockets with portraits of the king secreted beneath their clothes.…
For William Matthew Prior, art was a business. While living in Portland, Maine, in the 1820s, he received some sort of art instruction that enabled him to paint in a manner that approached an academic model. From his earliest work…
Following his death from appendicitis at the age of forty-two, Bellows’ multifaceted career was often reduced to myth. He became celebrated as the brash baseball player from the heartland who had reputedly rejected an offer to play for the Cincinnati…
The saga of the Wyeth family stands out as unique in the history of American art. No other family has produced nationally significant painters in three successive generations. The work of all three painters of the Wyeth family is now…
The Federal Art Project (FAP), which opened in August 1935, was the visual arts division of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), created to provide economic relief during the Great Depression. In Connecticut, 169 artists produced nearly 5000 easel paintings, sculptures,…
At the mention of Edith Halpert’s (1900–1970) name most modern art dealers, gallery owners, and auction appraisers can’t help but applaud. A renegade of the modern art world, Halpert brought recognition and eventual market success to a number of unsung…
Tall case clocks, also known today as grandfather clocks, evoke a nostalgic sense of family and home. Acquired originally for their timekeeping properties, they were functional, decorative, and costly. Due to the expense, clock ownership was quite limited in the…
For the first time in its long history, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, has a gallery dedicated to the display and interpretation of the magnificent arts of Native Americans. The new gallery presents a broad overview of the diverse…
On the night of August 8, 1850, abolitionist William Chaplin attempted to carry out a plan he had successfully executed many times before—ferrying runaway slaves out of the District of Columbia, through Maryland, to freedom. The slaves in question belonged…
Founded in 1998 by husband and wife team Judy Goffman Cutler and Laurence S. Cutler, the National Museum of American Illustration art (NMAI) is the first institution in the country to be devoted entirely to American illustration (Fig. 1). A…
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