: "Maine Architectural Drawings From 1875-1925," at the Portland
Museum of Art is the second part of a series presenting a
colorful variety of works in pencil, ink, watercolor and pastel
that highlight the best-known era of Maine architecture, the
half-century from 1875 to 1925. This period of widespread growth
saw the rise of two distinctly American forms in both resort and
urban areas across the state - the shingle style and the colonial
revival.
The shingle style was common in domestic buildings in the suburbs
and along the seashore. It is marked by large, rambling houses of
irregular form covered in tight wood shingle walls. The colonial
revival style was applied to buildings of all kinds and used
classical forms adapted from the works of Eighteenth Century New
England. Regardless of the style in which an architect worked,
the process resulted in many beautifully wrought drawings. Many
architects, like Portland's famed John Calvin Stevens
(1855-1940), worked in both styles.
Part I of this exhibition series, presented in the spring of
2004, saw the builder become a professional architect. In Part
II, visitors see the architect become an artist. The increase in
corporate firms gave rise to individuals specializing in various
aspects of the profession, including that of "delineator" or, in
the case of Harry C. Wilkinson (1872-1937), "perspective
draftsman." After the Civil War, the education of the architect
increasingly approached that of the artist. Aspiring architects
traveled to Paris to study at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, as did
John Howard Stevens (1879-1958); to Cambridge and its
Massachusetts Institute of Technology; or, like Arthur McFarland
(1890-1953), to Columbia University in New York or other newly
established university schools.
Gaining proficiency with artists' tools was as fundamental to
these programs as the study of the historical styles that formed
the basis of eclectically designed buildings. Some of these
institutions included studio practice in life drawing as part of
the curriculum, or students formed their own sketching clubs or
spent their free hours painting portraits and landscapes.
Although John Calvin Stevens did not attend a school of
architecture, he participated in the sketch club at MIT in the
early 1880s. Standard plans and elevations continued to be
fundamental for the practice of architecture, but large,
eye-catching views, such as the Stevenses' firm's perspective of
the L.D.M. Sweat Galleries at the Portland Museum of Art also
became commonplace. New artistic techniques, such as William
Austin's free-hand pen-and-ink sketches for the Jackson Cottage,
impressionistic watercolor washes, soft pencil graphics, charcoal
drawing and the use of pastels, were all employed to create
images that grew ever larger. These were custom-framed like works
of art, as in the monumental drawing for Carrere and Hastings's
Portland City Hall. Professional reputations came to depend as
much on the publication of drawings in the new professional
magazines, such as Boston's American Architect and Building
News, as on actual buildings. The ability to "sell" a design
through artistic presentation became the central aim of the
profession, and it remains so today.
"The Maine Perspective: Architectural Drawings" is a
comprehensive three-part exhibition series that focuses on the
rich graphic heritage of Maine's architecture and examines the
evolving building tradition as well as the development of the
architectural profession in the state. Part I of the
series, "The Rise of the Architectural Profession,
1800-1860," (February 7-May 23, 2004) focused on architecture
becoming a profession, while Part III, on view in the spring of
2006, will focus on modern architecture during the period of 1925
to 1980. An illustrated catalog featuring all three exhibitions
will be published at the end of the series in 2006.
This exhibition series is guest curated by two of the state's
leading architectural historians: Earle G. Shettleworth, director
of the Maine Historic Preservation Commission, and James F.
O'Gorman, Grace Slack McNeil professor emeritus of the history of
American art, Wellesley College. The McNeil Program has also
generously provided partial funding for the exhibition.
The Portland Museum of Art is at Seven Congress Square. For
information, 207-775-6148.
