Gloucester

Gloucester is a city of about 30,000 people on Cape Ann in Essex County, Massachusetts. It is part of Massachusetts’ North Shore, about 30 miles up the coast from Boston. An important center of the fishing industry and a popular summer destination, Gloucester consists of an urban core on the north side of the harbor and the outlying neighborhoods of Annisquam, Bay View, Lanesville, Folly Cove, Magnolia, Riverdale, East Gloucester, and West Gloucester. Here’s a map:

I lived in West Gloucester for a couple years when I was in grade school on Bray Street out in the country. I clearly remember picnics and swimming at Wingaersheek Beach a couple of miles from our house.  On this particular visit we spent our time in and around Gloucester’s harbor, from Stage Fort Park through town to Rocky Neck.

Gloucester was founded at Cape Ann by an expedition called the “Dorchester Company” of men from Dorchester (in the county of Dorset, England) chartered by James I in 1623. It was one of the first English settlements in what would become the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and predates both Salem in 1626 and Boston in 1630. The first company of pioneers made landing at Half Moon Beach and settled nearby, setting up fishing stages in a field in what is now Stage Fort Park. This settlement’s existence is proclaimed today by a memorial tablet, on a 50-foot boulder in that park, on the left side of the photo below.

Life in this first settlement was harsh and it was short-lived. Around 1626 the place was abandoned, and not resettled for 15 years, being incorporated in 1642. Early industry included subsistence farming and logging. Fishing, for which the town is known today, was limited to close-to-shore, with families subsisting on small catches as opposed to the great bounties yielded in later years. The fisherman of Gloucester did not command the Grand Banks until the mid-18th century, and the town is strongly identified with the spirit, character, and danger of fishing in the open ocean. This spirit is commemorated along the Stacy Esplanade, on the west side of downtown, facing the harbor.

The “Man at the Wheel” is an 8-foot-tall, bronze statue, by sculptor Leonard Craske, of a fisherman dressed in oilskins standing braced at the wheel on the sloping deck of his ship. The monument has a square base of sea green granite. It is positioned so that the fisherman is looking out over Gloucester Harbor.

The fisherman in the sculpture was modeled after Capt. Clayton Morrissey, a prominent Gloucester fisherman, once the captain of the Effie M. Morrissey. A memorial plaque gives a short history as well as a biblical description.

“They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters, these see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep.” Psalm 107, 23-24.

Nearby there were other plaques, listing the names of ships and sailors who perished at sea. Coincidentally, while we were standing there, a man was explaining this to others.

From overhearing parts of the conversation, it turned out that he was a former fisherman who knew many of the ships and fishermen listed and was filling in some anecdotal history around the official listings. Nice coincidence.

We stopped at a small restaurant a few blocks away for some lunch.

This somewhat cluttered landscape conveys the character of contemporary Gloucester, a collection of sturdy brick buildings, built tight to winding streets following the outline of the harbor, with a lot of their charm intact, but challenged by modern traffic. The Sugar Magnolias name probably has some kind of history; but we didn’t learn it. In any case, it didn’t serve southern cooking – and various seafood dishes were excellent.

After lunch, we circumnavigated the harbor to a small arm that sticks out into the water.

Rocky Neck is one of the oldest continuously operating art colonies in the United States. Located on a rocky peninsula within Gloucester’s working harbor, Rocky Neck is known for its quaint neighborhood and many art galleries and studios.

Artists including Winslow Homer, Edward Hopper, and many others working on Rocky Neck in the 19th and early 20th centuries inspired the Cape Ann style of American Impressionism. Working artists still work and display their work in Rocky Neck galleries during the summer months. We visited the Rocky Neck Cultural Center, created out of a former church, where local artists display their work.

At the time, they were having a group show.

Not surprisingly much of the artwork featured seascapes, such as these two by Cathy Coakley:

and another pair by artist Leigh Slingluff:

Although I suspect that the cost of modern life has caught up with Rocky Neck, it still conveys the pleasant stability of a small town.

and in a few cases, the changes that new money brings.

I liked the hand-built quality of some of the materials used, especially at a detail level.

And in this case in a way that we haven’t seen in a long time.

These are embossed steel panels with a gorgeous acquired patina of rust and multiple attempts at getting paint to stick. At the end of the day, though, it’s hard to ignore the foundational quality of the harbor that helped Rocky Neck to happen.

As well as the Gloucester neighborhood that framed the other side of the harbor.

Well, maybe one last quirky building can’t hurt.

Back to Boston for more urban adventures.

 

South Boston Waterfront

At the end of our Eastern Canada and New England trip we stayed with my sister and her husband in Brookline, a neighborhood near Boston. One afternoon, she and I spent some time walking through the current developments along the South Boston Waterfront.

Boston’s compact and dense downtown is on the left. The South Boston Waterfront, located just southeast across Fort Point Channel from Downtown, includes the Fort Port neighborhood on the western edge; Fan Pier, the Seaport World Trade Center, and Boston’s Marine Industrial Park to the east. All of these locations are rapidly transforming the area from historic warehouses and industrial space into a creative, tech, and residential hub for the city. The map is misleading with regard to the major highways. I-90 is actually in tunnel through this area and under the harbor to the airport; and Route 1, courtesy of Boston’s somewhat infamous “Big Dig” is similarly underground and supplanted by the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway.

This landscaped open space weaves a green lung through the heart of Boston, a dramatic change from the previous elevated, noisy and dirty highway. It has also enhanced the properties between it and the harbor (to the left of and below the photo) since they now have, in effect, a garden on one side and water views on the other.

At the beginning of our walk we came across an interesting piece of public art.

A commentary on the pervasiveness of our digital world – though walking on the keyboards didn’t appear to send any messages or images. Numerous apartment buildings have recently been built or are in development in the Innovation District, offering residents apartment, condominium, and micro-unit options. Historic Fort Point hosts affordable artists’ units along with market rate “loft living” opportunities in former warehouses. Boston’s Harborwalk runs along the piers, connecting residents to the 45-mile waterfront path network.

The remaining maritime activities tend towards the genteel (and expensive); and much of the architecture exhibits its corporate character clearly.

One interesting residential building contrasted with the general corporate tone.

The adjacent Barking Crab provided a fun foreground; and the facade was fun up close.

It was hard to see clearly; but it appears that there is either a bicycle or bicycle furniture in almost every unit. The photo below is of a large photo; and in it you can see that the bicycle wheel actually offers a way to easily move the television around.

The waterfront walkway includes pretty good graphics, outlining the area’s history.

More artwork created a contrast between older dates and activities seen in silhouette and newer construction across the harbor beyond.

Offering a dynamic mix of opportunities and spaces, the South Boston Waterfront draws a huge range of businesses and events. Just inland from the Harborwalk, a burgeoning tech and biotech community is attracting organizations, entrepreneurs, and designers into a cluster of flexible office spaces and unique live-work buildings.

The Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA) has been woven in as well, but given a position of prominence. It was still under construction.

While just about everything is new (there are only subtle reminders of the large railroad yard that used to service this part of the port), occasional, explicitly historic remnants have been preserved for interest.

This center pivot bridge carried rail tracks across a waterway. It wasn’t clear whether it will be put to some use and provide access or just remain as a visual element.

There’s no question that the South Boston Waterfront District has a development booster flavor and energy – and that they’re not shy about it.

But I’ll leave you with a small grace note before I “move on”.

My message would be that more of this would benefit the district.

Portland Museum of Art

The Portland Museum of Art, or PMA, is the largest and oldest public art institution in the U.S. state of Maine. Founded as the Portland Society of Art in 1882. It is located in the downtown area known area The Arts District in Portland, Maine.

The PMA used a variety of exhibition spaces until 1908; that year Margaret Jane Mussey Sweat bequeathed her three-story mansion, now known as the McLellan House, and sufficient funds to create a gallery in memory of her late husband, Lorenzo De Medici Sweat, who was a U.S. Representative.

McLellan House (Sweat Memorial Galleries behind)

Noted New England architect John Calvin Stevens designed the L. D. M. Sweat Memorial Galleries, which opened to the public in 1911.

Over the next 65 years, as the size and scope of the exhibitions expanded, the limitations of the Museum’s galleries, storage, and support areas became apparent. In 1976, Maine native Charles Shipman Payson promised the Museum his collection of 17 paintings by Winslow Homer. Recognizing the Museum’s physical limitations, he also gave $8 million toward the building of an addition to be designed by Henry Nichols Cobb of I. M. Pei & Partners. Construction began on the Charles Shipman Payson Building in 1981, and within two years the $8.2 million facility was opened to the public.

The building reflects many of the Pei firm’s interests in the 1980’s, such as a repetitive, somewhat classical organization combined with an exploration of basic geometric forms, seen in the overall building, the extended “pediment” structure above the roof, and in smaller elements such as the entrance.

The freestanding art in front of the building, Seven, by Robert Indiana, doesn’t take Pei’s formal approach but stands on its own.

We made a brief stop at the cafe, just down from the lobby, and got to see examples of the interactive features the museum offers.

The Black Tie Company Cafe offered a nice selection of healthy foods. Our experience in traveling has been that most museums often offer good food in attractive settings. A small workspace nearby was available to museum goers and students.

Several cases showed local craft work. I liked the idea of including quotations from William Morris, Paul Gaugin, and John Ruskin about the relationship of art to craft; but it seemed clumsy to just paste them in front of the work itself.

Morris – “To apply art to useful wares, in short, is not frivolity, but a part of the serious business of life.”

Gauguin – “Decoration involves so much poetry . . . It takes a tremendous imagination to decorate any surface tastefully.”

Ruskin – “All art may be decorative and . . . the greatest art yet produced has been decorative.”

Upstairs again we passed through the Sweat galleries that act as a transition from the main building back to the original McLellan House.

Here, the museum has chosen to display a ‘sampler’ of its works. The PMA’s collection features works by artists including Winslow Homer, Marsden Hartley, John Marin, Louise Nevelson, Andrew Wyeth and John Greenleaf Cloudman. The Museum has the largest European collection in Maine. The major European movements from impressionism through surrealism are represented by the Joan Whitney Payson, Albert Otten, and Scott M. Black collections, which include works by Mary Cassatt, Edgar Degas, René Magritte, Claude Monet, Edvard Munch, Pablo Picasso, and Auguste Rodin.

The display below features the various sculpting tools of Gaston Lachaise, an American artist born in France, as a way of acknowledging the complexity of the process involved in creating a sculpture.

Then, as an example, they displayed Torso of Elevation, a plaster piece that reveals many of the tool marks left in the surfaces as part of this study.

Nearby, the painting, Still Life with Coffee Pot and Melon, by Frenchman Roger de La Fresnaye offers a wholly different take on form making.

Claude Monet‘s The Seine at Vetheuil represents the Impressionists and their fascination with evoking light in its many qualities.

But the mood changes once again when Ulysses S. Grant steps into view.

This marble sculpture by Franklin B. Simmons works to show off Grant’s persona but also the artist’s skill at representing a variety of materials and textures in stone, such as the folds in the fabric and “brass” buttons.

I was surprised to see Winslow Homer‘s Young Farmers (Study for Weaning the Calf) in this part of the museum, since I knew they had a collection of Homer’s work and that he spent the latter part of his career nearby in Maine. This was just to give a taste.

In contrast to the study quality of Young Farmers, Gilbert Stuart‘s portrait of Elizabeth Inches follows the more traditional approach of using a formal setting and flattering lighting to highlight both the young woman and her hair style, clothing and jewelry.

In a more straightforward manner, reflecting Maine country living, Royall Brewster Smith portrays Maria McLellan Edwards and Hanna Edwards. 

The notes make clear that, “Many of his sitters were related to each other or the artist, illustrating the intricate and interconnected social circles of Southern Maine”.

From these galleries we stepped through a pair of doors into the rear of the McLellan House where the main feature turned out to be the restored house itself.

The stair hall above shows the late 19th century predilection for decorating all surfaces, while the dining room below is more restrained – except for the carpet.

The house contained only a modest amount of free-standing “art”, such as this Endless Column, by Justin Richel, made of slip-cast and hand-built vitreous china to “transform the elements of a tea party into one slender tower that appears about to topple over”, probably not a 19th century approach.

Upstairs we came to the aforementioned Winslow Homer paintings. There’s a good summary of his life and overview of his work on Wikipedia, here; so I’ll just pass along the basics and show some of the museum’s pieces. Largely self-taught, Homer began his career working as a commercial illustrator. He subsequently took up oil painting and produced major studio works characterized by the weight and density he exploited from the medium. He also worked extensively in watercolor, creating a fluid and prolific oeuvre, primarily chronicling his working vacations. Here’s a demure watercolor in which he puts three Artists Sketching in the White Mountains out into this strong landscape, as a contrast both in form (especially with the umbrellas) and in the interjection of a ‘civilized’ activity into the informal and unconstrained environment.

In the sky above, though, it’s clear that the dynamics of weather and terrain are not simply background information, but have a presence of their own. This really shows when he tackles the sea.

Weatherbeaten clearly displays Homer’s seemingly effortless ability to convey the character and energy of the sea – a strong feature of his later years. ( I have to admit that I find the frames for his work not very sympathetic to the imagery. I made a version without a frame to see the difference. )

A Maine hunting scene interestingly uses some of the same dynamic composition within the rectangle as the seascape – strong diagonals and sharp contrasts between dark and light forms. This is watercolor, though, in contrast to the oil paint above.

In this scene, Wild Geese in Flight, Homer “provides viewers with a scene of death through the eyes of the concealed hunter”

The museum explains that this painting “represents the work of a mature artist using close observation of the natural world around him to grapple with the fundamental questions about life and death.” He worked near this beach from a studio in Prout’s Neck – a setting that kept him constantly aware of the moods of the sea.

The PMA owns and manages the studio as a remote gallery; but access is limited and expensive so we weren’t able to see it.

We grazed our way through the rest of the museum a bit, enjoying the variety that this regional museum brings to its community.

John Heliker – Tabletop Still Life – 1935

Artist ? – Roommate in her chair – 1972

Pierre-Auguste Renoir – Woman in a Chantilly-lace Blouse – 1869

Joan Miro – The First Spark of Day III – 1966

Dale Chihuly – Viridian Persian Set with Winsor Red Lip Wraps – 1987    It’s always interesting to see something made in your own home town when you’re 3000 miles away and in a totally different setting. Strange and familiar at the same time.

Paul Strand – Young Boy, Gondeville, Charente – 1951

Then, of course, there’s the really unfamiliar,

Paul Delvaux‘s – The Greeting – 1938  Not a typical Portland West End greeting.

So we’ll finish our PMA tour with a familiar view of a part of Maine we recently enjoyed.

Richard Estes – Beaver Dam Pond, Acadia National Park – 2009

Mark Spitzer – Beaver Dam Pond, Acadia National Park – 2017

Outside, we worked our way back to our bed and breakfast, walking over some public art inserted into the brick sidewalks, (a nice tradition that I have also been part of)

and saying one final good-bye to Longfellow on our way to dinner.

Next stop – Boston !