A Century of Monhegan Art

Ed Deci

The earliest known painting of Monhegan, titled "Whitehead Cliffs Monhegan Island, "is an 9" x 14" oil that was exhibited in a 1975 show of seascapes at the Whitney. Aaron Draper Shattuck painted it in 1858. Although a few artists worked on Monhegan in the ensuing three decades, the landmark date for the beginning of the Monhegan art colony was 1890 when several artists began regularly summering on the island.

When I think about the history of this century-long Monhegan art colony, I find it useful to divide it into three eras, using the two World Wars as points of demarcation. For me, the period from 1890 to the First World War was the most exciting, not only on Monhegan but throughout the northeastern United States, because that was the period when classic approaches to art were being challenged by the people who were to become giants of American art.

Samuel Peter Rolt Triscott, an English expatriate who did wonderful watercolors in a classical English style, arrived on Monhegan about 1892 with Sears Gallagher. In 1902 Triscott settled permanently on the island, thus becoming its first year-round artist. Triscott was perhaps Monhegans finest example of what many artists of that era were rejecting.

In contrast to Triscott, Eric Hudson, who landed on Monhegan in 1897, may have been Monhegans earliest new American artist." His paintings used bold shapes and strong colors, usually to convey mans relation to the sea. In 1903, Robert Henri, one of Americas most important art teachers, along with fellow artist Edward Willis Redfield, sailed from Boothbay Harbor to Monhegan. Both artists were very taken by the island and stayed to paint several canvases. That fall, in New York, Henri spread the word among his students that Monhegan was a spectacular place for artists, and, in 1905, Rockwell Kent was the first of them to make the sojourn.

Kent spent most of the next five years on Monhegan, during which he not only painted some of his most important canvases (including the famous "Winter, Monhegan Island" at the Metropolitan) but he also built houses, including the Huberts house on Horns Hill and Jamie Wyeths house at Lobster Cove.

Others from the Henri circle who painted on Monhegan Included Randall Davey, Leon Kroll, Josephine Hopper, John McPherson, Emil Holzhauer, George Bellows, and Edward Hopper. Bellows was by far the most successful of the group during the teens and his Monhegan paintings were fine examples of his mature style. Edward Hopper, who spent the summer of 1916 on the island, was just finding his now-famous style, though he had not yet gained acclaim. During that summer he did a number of strong oil sketches of Monhegan rocks and surf, several of which are now at the Whitney.

There was one other very important movement occurring in American art at the same time the Henri group was making its mark. That was American impressionism. The period from 1903 until the First World war was the heyday of that movement, and the small town of Old Lyme, along the Connecticut coast, was its focal point. Two impressionists associated with the Old Lyme group, Charles Ebert and Mary Roberts, were married in 1903 and went to Monhegan for the first time in 1909, returning nearly every summer for half a century.

During the teens and twenties, several significant Old Lyme impressionists visited the Eberts and painted on Monhegan. They included William Chadwick, Wilson Irvine, Ernest Albert, Chauncey Ryder, William Robinson, and Rudolf Scheffler.

Through the years Monhegan has also been home to a number of important illustrators. The earliest was Frederick Don Steele, who arrived in the 1890s and is particularly well known for his illustrations of the Sherlock Holmes series.

Between the Wars

The period between the two world wars was a somewhat less exciting period in Monhegan art because there were no significant developments in process. Still, there were many very fine painters living and working on the island. Included among them were at least eight noteworthy women artists.

Alice Swett and Maude Briggs Knowlton arrived in the late 1880s and were still summering on the island in the '20s and '30s. Alice Kent Stoddard arrived in 1909 (to visit her aunt Sarah, Rockwell Kents mother) and returned regularly for about 50 years. Alice Stoddard is best known for her portraits of Monhegan personalities, many of which are reproduced in the last chapter of Alta Asheys Under the Grey Gulls Wings.

Alices best friend in Philadelphia was Mary Mason, who visited Monhegan for the first time in the mid-1920s. She returned regularly and painted many Monhegan scenes, including a fine example titled "Sydneys Garden," which is on display at the Monhegan Museum.

Another interesting woman painter of that period was a suffragette who arrived about 1920 and lived on the island for over 30 years. Those of you who were on Monhegan in the 1950s may remember a little old woman in knickers and beret. She was Ida Sedgewick Proper. Ida owned the cottage that is now Newt Searls, and the Lupine Gallery was her studio. She had spent several years painting in Europe around 1910 and showed her paintings in Paris salons. She was greatly influenced by the French impressionists, and her paintings of that period are now prized by dealers and collectors.

Other important women artists of Monhegan from the period between the wars were Constance Cochrane, Isabel Branson Cartwright, and Mary Taylor Winter. Mary lived year-round on the island with her husband, Andrew Winter, an émigré from Estonia, who was a painter of considerable significance.

Its interesting that most of the artists who lived on Monhegan in that era spent at least a few winters on the island. William Hekking is another example. He taught art at Syracuse University and the University of Kansas and was director of the Albright Knox museum in Buffalo. Hekking summered on Monhegan from 1922 until about 1950, when he moved there permanently.

Alfred Fuller, a prominent Monhegan painter from the 30s through 60s, first went to the island about 1908 as a little boy with his father, an artist named Spencer Fuller. The huge seascape in the dining room at the Island Inn is an example of Alfreds work.

The Russian A. J. Bogdanove found his way to Monhegan in 1918 and for decades recorded his Monhegan expenences on canvas. Leo Meissner arrived in 1923 and spent the next forty years doing extraordinary wood engravings of island subjects.

In 1924, James Fitzgerald, still an art student, first visited the island, and in 1942 Monhegan became his permanent home. He painted exceptional, strong watercolors of varied subjects that have gained increasing recognition in recent years.

Jay Connaway, who lived year-round on the island from 1931 to 1947, has been widely praised as a marine painter. Teco Slagboom, a scientific illustrator, also arrived in the 30s, and for five decades painted the plants, trees, and animals of Monhegan.

Post World War II

After the Second World War, several New York artists who were looking for a place to summer heard that Monhegan Island was an ideal place. One early arrival was Joe deMartini, who did superbly sensitive oils, some of which were shown at the Monhegan Museum two summers ago. Others included Nick Luisi, Moe Shulman, Jean Liberté and Mike Loew. Mike had been in New York during the '30s working on WPA murals. One was for the U.S. pavilion at the Worlds Fair, which he did jointly with Willem de Kooning.

Monhegan art of this post-war period was greatly influenced by abstract expressionism, which was the art movement of the time. Mike Loew, as I said, had worked with de Kooning, John Hultberg had studied with Mark Rothko, and many others had studied with Hans Hoffman.

The post World War II era had much of the same kind of excitement that was evident in the pre World War I era, in part no doubt because both were periods of major change in the world of art. In addition, the principals of each period were friends in New York who hung out and worked together there.

Another member of the 50s group is said to have acted in order to get money to buy paints. He, of course, was Zero Mostel, whose last summer on the island was 1977. He spent that summer painting and preparing for a new play, "The Merchant," which he never performed because he had a heart attack on opening day. Zero was a great character and those of you who saw him around know how much fun he was to have in the neighborhood. He did numerous self-portraits, many as characters in his plays. The National Portrait Gallery has his self-portrait as Tevye.

Other fine post-war painters from the New York/Monhegan group include Henry Kallem, Alex Minewski, Hyde Solomon, Herbie Kallem, and Reuben Tam.

Philip Shumaker also arrived on Monhegan after the war. He had studied with the impressionist Frank Vincent Dumond, though his style was more closely related to that of Frederick Waugh who had painted on Monhegan early in the century.

Through the past hundred years, there have been many other Monhegan painters. The ones I have mentioned represent a highly arbitrary selection that I made simply to illustrate some points and to stimulate your interest in the islands unique and remarkable contribution to the history of American art.