This project began, at least in a sense, early in 2019. As a Historian and as a Teacher, I looked forward to Gloucester’s Quadricentennial celebration in 2023 and I began to prepare for it. The result was a website that I called Gloucesterepdia and I began to search for, organize and publish the names of notable people in Gloucester’s past along with other material. Long hours spent working my way through the biographical files at the Cape Ann Museum Archive and the Sawyer Free Library Archive produced a list of over 500 individuals in a variety of categories. View the orginal biographical index.
Then COVID happened. When my school went remote in March of 2020, I found myself with a lot of time on my hands. Additionally, stuck in my home, I found myself pacing and roaming. I became increasingly attracted to the sparrows who visited the feeder on my back porch and at some point and for no apparent reason I began to sketch them.
It was enjoyable and I’m sure a distraction from the chaotic world outside. By the Fall, I also began to experiment with landscapes began to post them on my Instagram account. By the end of the year, I found myself I beginning to imitate other artists work. The earliest work within the 400+ collection, a work in imitation of George Ames Aldrich, was posted on January 3rd of 2021. It received three likes. View the image here. Within two years I would paint over 400 more works in imitation.
Do realize that my painting experience started as nil. I have little conscious memory of ever painting and to this day I remain unschooled and untaught expect by the remnants of the artists that came before. I make no claim about my artistic talent other than that I have improved. However, I do hope my efforts will expose the depth and breath of Gloucester’s artistic community and its impact on the artistic world.
Unaware of where I was heading two things moved the journey along. First I established a practice. As a poet, yes even as an unsucessful one, I understood the importance of establishing a practice. I believe in part my lack of a poetic success is because I have not been able to esatblish a consistent poetic practice. Despite this, I believe the Poet in within me agreed to make room for a painting practice as long as poetry was not forgotten. I hope I have stayed true to this arrangement. After school and before cooking dinner became my time to paint. Secondly, as the number of imitations grew I set a goal to imitate a 100 different artists. Many of these of course are considered to be Gloucester's greatest because they were easist to find. "Working towards a Centennial" was the result. By September I was two thirds there.
A few thing helped me complete this initial task and compelled me to move forward. At the CAM archive I was able to locate the artist catalogs of four historic and important exhibitions. I set out to reproduce each of them. The 1892 Art and Loan Exhibit held at Central Grammar featured many of Gloucester's earliest artists. The famous 1917 exhibition at the Gallery-On-The-Moor established our community within the greater artistic world. The 1923 openings of both the North Shore Art Association and the Gloucester Society of Artists, in Gloucester's Tercentennial year, clearly demonstrated the continued vibrancy and work of Gloucester Art. The completion of these exhibits blew me past a centennial of imitations and a Bicentennial of them too.
I’m not sure when the commitment to 400 was made but at some point I realized that at my pace I could complete 400 paintings before January 1st of 2023. Additionally, the discovery in the CAM Archive of the catalog for Gloucester ArtWeek in 1933, and a list of early Rockport Art Association members brought my list to over 400 different artists. A bit all out at the end but the paintings were complete by December 31st, 2022.
With the hard part done, I began to work on creating a website for the collection. While obviously the site features my imitations, the site is not intended to celebrate me but rather to celebrate and teach about the 400 plus artists that I have imitated. To do so, I looked to provided links for each artists biographical information as well as links to online examples of that artists work. This took longer than expected.
First, I took a bit of a break not painting for a few days and when I returned to painting I began to paint only my own original works. My current Progress can be seen at The Gloucester 2023 Collection. Secondly, I sidetracked myself working on another Quadricentennial inspired site “400 people”. I did however make some progress and when the school year ended I vowed to refocus my efforts and to complete it.
As the research deepened, I found myself at a disadvantage in that I don’t really have a good understanding of art history in general. Therefore it’s difficult to compare Gloucester with other locales critically. To me its the only one I really know. However, a few things do stand out. While many of the painters featured in the collection are not well known or regarded, many are. Gloucester is a small city, and while larger cities like Boston and New York could boast even larger numbers of well known artists I’m unaware of any other similarly sized city that can. So Why?
The beauty of Gloucester is undeniable. It’s a place where the sky, sea and land meet. As America’s oldest seaport its an active place as well. Ships and sails and fishermen all plying their trade as well as the Seagulls, provide countless subjects. Lastly, our light and the omnipresent reflections.
Another thing that became evident in the research is that Gloucester is a Classroom. While there may not be a “Gloucester School of Art there seems to have always been a Summer School of Art. The Faculty is quite amazing. Contributing institutions include the Museum School of Boston, The Art Student League, and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art. Many of the students became teachers themselves bringing what they learned here to classrooms across the continent. I’m am also fairly confident, whether intentionalally instructional or not, the teachers have established a fairly large set of Gloucester motifs. I’d say at least ten.
Lastly, the artistic community. Supported by an even broader artistic community, painters have thrived on Cape Ann. It’s interesting to see the many artists that have summered here who have returned to retire, to work and to teach.
With the story told, though more work shall still be done, that this collection is now on exhibit.
Dave Pleuler
August 2023