: From June 15 to October 7, 57 years after his death, the first
major exhibition of John Prentiss Benson's paintings will open at
the Portsmouth Athenaeum, a private library devoted to seacoast
history and artifacts at 6-8 Market Street. The show is entitled
"A Retrospective Exhibition: The Artistic Legacy of John Prentiss
Benson."
Inspiration for the athenaeum exhibit goes to Nicholas Baker,
whose wife, Joan, was a Benson granddaughter. Since Joan's death
in 2000, Baker has devoted his energies to compiling and editing
the works of John Prentiss Benson.
At the age of 56, architect John Prentiss Benson, younger brother
of Frank Benson, took up the brushes he had used only idly - and
became a full-time professional painter. "He took up painting,
and he took it up with pretty much immediately successful
results," said John G. Hagan, a Boston art dealer, expert in
early Twentieth Century American art and guest curator for the
athenaeum show.
Benson did most of his painting in Kittery at a handsome old home
called "Willowbank," which he bought in 1925. Benson's principal
subject was the sea - right off the front lawn of his home in
Kittery.
As a painter, Benson quickly became known as the "unrecognized
younger brother" of the more famous Frank Benson, a leading
painter from that early Twentieth Century school of American
impressionists. But Frank had a running start.
Margaret M. Betts tells the story in The Artistic Legacy of
John Prentiss Benson, a book compiled and edited by Nicholas
J. Baker (see www.johnpbenson.org). She said both Benson boys,
growing up the sons of a merchant in Salem, Mass., in the 1880s
and 1890s were interested in studying art. But, when it came time
to choose a career, Frank chose art and John, three years
younger, was advised one artist in the family was enough. He
dutifully went into architecture. Although he built a very
successful business over the years, it was Frank who became
famous in the rarified world of fine art.
John Benson's self portrait shows the artist, calm and in
command, wearing a stiff white collar, proper red tie and dark
suit. An artist's smock and a barely visible brush hints at his
true calling.
Museum hours are Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 1 to 4
p.m. Admission is free. For information, 603-431-2538.
