“Liberty and Washington” by an unidentified American artist, probably Connecticut, 1800-10, oil on canvas (window shade). Collection of the Fenimore Art Museum. Gift of Stephen C Clark.
By Madelia Hickman Ring
COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — When a venerable museum with a landmark collection has the opportunity to add on to its existing venue, one imagines the powers that be might be faced with some hard decisions: use the space to go in a new direction or double down and remind visitors why the museum’s reputation is so noteworthy?
In the case of the Fenimore Art Museum, established in a 1933 mansion built by Edward Severin Clark on land once owned by novelist James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851), the choice was clear, as president and CEO Dr Paul D’Ambrosio told Antiques and The Arts Weekly. “We have so many great folk art masterpieces that we haven’t been able to show for lack of gallery space. We have a permanent folk art gallery in which we have rotated works over the years but adding a second gallery and starting from scratch with a new, highly flexible gallery space was very appealing.” He added that it gave the museum the chance to feature some of its recent acquisitions alongside “old favorites.”
Some of those “old favorites” are in an introductory section that brings those new to folk art up to speed. Visitors familiar with the collection will be happy to see John Brewster, Jr’s, masterwork, “One Shoe Off,” here; it exemplifies the deaf-mute portrait painter’s skill at expressing the delicate features and playful innocence of childhood. Featured as well is “Picking Flowers,” a striking portrait of a young girl attributed to Samuel Miller that is one of 16 similar portraits thought to be by the artist. Recent scholarship on the artist has been incorporated into the museum’s presentation, which suggests the painting may be a posthumous rendering because of the symbolic inclusion of the morning glory, plucked rose blossom, daisy underneath her foot and sunset in the background.
“Peaceable Kingdom” by Edward Hicks (1780-1849), probably Newtown, Penn., 1825-30, oil on canvas. Collection of the Fenimore Art Museum. Gift of Stephen C Clark.
Here, too, is “The Peaceable Kingdom” by Edward Hicks, which is one of 62 known versions, many of which are in other important institutional collections. A recent acquisition but one no less iconic was created by one of the most important Outsider artists of the Twentieth Century: Bill Traylor. Born into enslavement on a cotton plantation in Alabama, Traylor began documenting his memories and observations on scrap paper and cardboard in the late 1930s. Though “Two Figures with Pitchfork and Birds” is believed to be an early work, it is characteristic of Traylor’s oeuvre, in which figures float on the page in energetic poses.
Sections dividing the installation — “The Spirit of Home,” “The Spirit of Community,” “The Spirit of America” and “The Spirit of Commerce” — prompted the exhibition’s title: “Boundless Spirit.” D’Ambrosio further explained, “My goal was to create a visually dynamic installation that matched the dynamism of the artwork and communicated to a broad audience the passion that infuses these many and varied artistic voices. Most of all, I aimed to express ‘the complex spirit of a diverse and ever-changing nation.’”
The concept of “home” can be defined in a myriad of ways and works in this area are equally diverse, anchored around a painted mantel, painted chair and blanket chest. A watercolor on paper floral still life, painted by Ann Butler in Greene County, N.Y., hangs near a tinplate trunk that Butler decorated in a similar fashion. Hung here are two oil and pencil portraits by A. Ellis, an artist who remains elusively obscure but who research has identified as working in the Readfield-Waterville area of central Maine. Featured, as well, is the museum’s recently acquired 1831 portrait of Phebe Buxton by husband and wife Samuel and Ruth Shute, which not only demonstrates the artistic practices of the artists but documents Buxton, who ran a boarding house for the Merrimack Manufacturing Company, where the Shutes resided.
Some of the works in the section titled “The Spirit of Home.”
Many key works speak to the spirit of community; notably, landscapes or genre scenes. Ralph Fasanella’s “Dress Shop” is a joyful and powerful tribute to the working class depicted in a view of a garment factory, a scene the artist would have been familiar with from hours spent at his mother’s dress shop. John Rasmussen’s (1828-1895) highly detailed “View of the Berks County Almshouse” dominates one wall in the section and checks the box for highly-detailed bird’s-eye and topographical views popular in the Nineteenth Century.
Symbols of the American Republic — the Liberty goddess, the American flag, bald eagles, the Liberty pole and cap, laurel wreaths and figures of George Washington — can be seen on various works on view. One work that combines all of them and more is an oil on canvas composition titled “Liberty and Washington” that may have been one of six window shades discovered in a Connecticut tavern. For more current renditions on the patriotic theme, the curator paired it with William Hawkins’ (1895-1990) “American Eagle,” acquired by the museum just two years following the artist’s death.
Sweeping landscape views abound throughout both “Spirit of America” and “Spirit of Community” and include Thomas Chambers’ “View of Cold Springs and Mount Taurus from Fort Putnam,” which follows the traditions of the Hudson River School painters while simultaneously alluding to American history and a romantic interest in European antiquity through its inclusion of the ruins of the Revolutionary War-era landmark. A slice of life in Revolutionary War Marblehead, Mass., was recalled in “Colonel Glover’s Fishermen Leaving Marblehead for Cambridge, 1775,” a 1920s oil on wallboard painting by J.O.J. Frost that is reflective of the historical fervor of the Colonial Revival movement.
“Colonel Glover’s Fishermen Leaving Marblehead for Cambridge, 1775” by John Orne Johnson Frost (1825-1928), Marblehead, Mass., 1922-28, oil on wallboard. Collection of the Fenimore Art Museum. Gift of Stephen C Clark. Richard Walker photo.
Carvings for both shops and ships embody the spirit of commerce, whether it took place on land or at sea. Tobacconist or cigar store figures in the museum’s collection include ones of Native Americans — seen in examples by Thomas V. Brooks and Julius T. Melchers — alongside other forms, such as Samuel A. Robb’s “Girl of the Period.” A painted wood cigar store figure attributed to Freehold, N.J., that is thought to have been carved by an enslaved man named Job because of its similarities to African ceremonial masks is included in the section, shown alongside a shop trade figure of Colonel Sellers made in Sellersville, Penn., for an apothecary shop.
Mariners with octants and telescopes rub shoulders with busts that may have adorned the shops of ship merchants in coastal Massachusetts. Titled “Ceres” and “Apollo,” they are attributed to the workshop of coastal Massachusetts carver, Simeon Skillen, Jr.
Scholars, curators, collectors and dealers continue to add to folk art scholarship in nearly every area of the field and the museum was careful to recognize such discoveries. This includes not just individual works but on itinerant portrait painters William Matthew Prior and Sturtevant Hamblin. Also tipping its hat to fresh research, the exhibition includes a double-handled stoneware jug, made by Thomas Commeraw, who was recently discovered to be a free Black craftsman who worked in Manhattan’s Corlear’s Hook.
No stranger to the collection, D’Ambrosio shared he was still surprised at how well the installation came together. “The consistency in aesthetic quality and emphasis on not just pattern and design but also surface texture and historical detail carry through the entire collection.”
“Boundless Spirit: American Folk Art at Fenimore Art Museum” opened to the public in September 2024 and is expected to be on long-term view for the conceivable future.
The Fenimore Art Museum is at 5798 State Highway 80. For information, 607-547-1400 or www.fenimoreartmuseum.org.
