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Lynn Beach Painters
The
school of artists known as the Lynn Beach Painters
evolved from the convergence of three primary events. The first was the
establishment of the Eastern Railroad from Boston
which passed through Lynn.
The
second was Lynn’s
growth into a major
industrial center of shoe manufacturing, allowing Lynn
shoe manufacturers and merchants to build substantial houses, primarily
in a
residential area of the City known as the Diamond District. The third was the passage
of the Mandatory
Drawing Act of 1870, which required all cities and towns with a
population of
more than 10,000 to provide drawing instruction in public schools and
free
evening classes for residents over age 15. The passage of this
legislation led
to the provision of art instruction in Lynn’s
public schools and to the formation of the Lynn
Evening Drawing
School.
These were the necessary ingredients for Lynn
to support an art colony.
Art
historian D. Roger Howlett considers the seven Lynn
Beach Painters to be a “school” of American marine impressionists that
developed in Lynn
and probably
produced more than 1,000 Lynn Beach paintings in a period that
stretched from
1882 to 1927. These
seven artists are
Nathaniel Leander Berry
(1859-1929), William Partridge Burpee (1846-1940), Edward Burrill Jr.
(1835-1913), Charles Edwin Lewis Green (1844-1915), Thomas Clarkson
Oliver
(1827-1892), Edward A. Page (1850-1928) and Charles Herbert Woodbury
(1864-1940). All of
these artists were
teachers, and all exhibited their work at the Boston Art Club. Five of
these
artists were Lynn
natives, and four
taught at the Lynn
Evening Drawing
School.
Other well known artists who painted the coastline of Lynn, Nahant, and
Swampscott include Albert Van Beest, William Bradford, Horace R.
Burdick,
Thomas Chambers, Samuel W. Griggs, Charles Hubbard, Ernest Longfellow,
Thomas
Clarkson Oliver, Alfred Ordway, H. Winthrop Pierce, Robert Salmon,
George
Snell, and William Stanley Haseltine.
Blaney
Beach, Swampscott, oil on canvas, 10 x 14 inches, Christopher
R. Mathias
Collection
All
of these artists, working in watercolor and oil, painted
the picturesque landscapes of the shoreline of Lynn,
Nahant, and Swampscott and the interaction of the people that lived and
worked
with the landscape. Their
paintings
featured the beaches, rock and ledges, tidal marshes, dunes, and
coastal views
with common themes of dories- especially the Swampscott dory, fishermen
and
their families-- clam diggers, net menders, lobstermen, kelp gatherers,
fish
shacks, and fishing gear. In other words, these paintings present a
visual
record for posterity of the rich heritage and charm of the life and
times of
Lynn, Nahant, and Swampscott. At the turn of the 20th
century, the
beaches became public with the destruction of the fish shacks and the
construction of the sea wall and parkway called Lynn
Shore Drive. As a result, the
picturesque scenes
recorded by these painters became history.
William Partridge
Burpee, Dories on Lynn Beach,
c. 1890s, oil on paper, 11 3/8 x 16 inches, Private Collection,
Courtesy
Childs Gallery
For additional
information see the following links:
http://www.childsgallery.com/publication.php?publication_id=5&start_ndx=0
http://www.amazon.com/Lynn-Beach-Painters-Along-1880-1920/dp/1882162137
Above information provided by Duncan and
Douglas Maitland
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