“Old Street, Spain,” Margaret Jordan Patterson, 1908. Gouache and watercolor.

The Visual Art of Celia Laighton Thaxter at SPNEA

BOSTON, MASS. – Discover another dimension of the artistic work of poet and essayist Celia Thaxter in “: The Visual Art of Celia Laighton Thaxter.” The Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (SPNEA) presents this exhibition from October 17 through April 2002 at the SPNEA Gallery at One Bowdoin Square.

Celia Thaxter (1835-94) is best known as the island poet and avid gardener of Appledore, a rocky, windswept island several miles off Portsmouth, N.H., where she entertained such artists and writers as Childe Hassam, John Greenleaf Whittier and Sarah Orne Jewett.

Thaxter also used the island as inspiration for watercolor illustrations for her volumes of poetry and designs for her hand-painted china.

Thaxter worked as a writer, illustrator, china painter and hostess at the family’s island hotel. This exhibition features a selection of Thaxter rdf_Descriptions, including painted tea cups with butterflies for handles, her paint box and brushes, and reproductions of her paintings and book illustrations.

The exhibition was organized by the Portsmouth Athenaeum and the Isles of Shoals Historic and Research Association with support from the Greater Piscataqua Community Foundation and the Rosamond Thaxter Foundation. Sharon Stephan is curator.

Hours are Monday through Friday, 10 am to 4 pm. On Monday, October 22, at 6 pm, SPNEA presents an illustrated lecture, “: The Visual Art of Celia Thaxter” by Stephan. She will speak about Thaxter as a visual artist, the media she used and the work she created.

On Monday, November 5, at 6 pm, historian Nancy Wetzel presents “Lives, Literature, Landscapes: Plantswomen Celia Thaxter and Sarah Orne Jewett,” an illustrated lecture examining the two Victorian writers as friends, gardeners and countrywomen of southern Maine.

For lecture information call 617-570-9105, extension 270.