William E. B. Starkweather
Maine & the Maritime
Provinces of Canada
William E. B. Starkweather:
Maine & the Maritimes Provinces of Canada
Catalogue to Accompany an Exhibition
held at the
Tides Institute & Museum of Art
Eastport, Maine
July 18 — August 17, 2008
Cover: Coast at Peggy’s Cove, Nova Scotia. 1939.
Figure 1. William Starkweather in his studio. Peter A. Juley & Son, photographer. Courtesy of
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Peter A. Juley & Son Collection. Negative number: J0094994.
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WILLIAM E. B. STARKWEATHER
MAINE AND THE MARITIME PROVINCES OF CANADA
ANTHONY PANZERA
“The water you touch in a river is the last of that which has past,
and the first of that which is coming. Thus it is with time present.
Life if well spent is long.”
R 1174 [1]
Leonardo wrote these words as a way of describing the ebb and flow
of generations, the helter-skelter of life, as though we as humans
are all spinning tops, occasionally bumping into one another and
then spinning off in opposite, undetermined directions. It is this
existential component of life that is totally unexplainable and
unpredictable.
Thus it was that almost concurrently with my appointment to a
teaching post at Hunter College in 1969, William E. B. Starkweather
quietly passed away at a nursing home in New Haven, Connecticut,
two days before his 90 th birthday. I of course knew nothing about
Starkweather, or he of me. He began teaching at Hunter College in
1936 and retired in 1948. Shortly after I began at Hunter, I met a
graduating senior, Peter Falotico, whose father passed on to him a
body of work acquired at auction. It was a portfolio of watercolors
and oils by William Starkweather, many of them works of Eastport,
Maine and the Maritime Provinces of Canada. It was due to the
confluence of these totally coincidental events that this exhibition,
the latest in a series of Starkweather exhibitions, was born.
WILLIAM EDWARD BLOOMFIELD STARKWEATHER
William E. B. Starkweather lived a full, rich and prolific life. [2]
He was an accomplished artist, museum curator, lecturer, author,
[1] Richter, Jean Paul, The Literary Works of Leonardo Da Vinci, Unabridged
ed. first published in London, 1883, 3rd ed. New York: Phaidon Publishers,
1970, vol. ii, p. 244, R 1174.
and beloved teacher. He was also an itinerant traveler – visiting
Bermuda, Mexico, Italy, France, and Spain and eventually finding
his way to Eastport, Maine and the Maritime Provinces. There, he
would return again and again to visually record the craggy coasts,
surging seas and dramatic vistas.
While details of Starkweather’s early years are sketchy, he is thought
to have been born on May 16, 1879, in Edinburgh, Scotland. His
father died some four or five years later, in 1883 or 1884, and his
mother, along with William and his sister, immigrated to the United
States, settling in New Haven, Connecticut. Soon after the family
arrived, Mrs. Bloomfield also died and the children were placed
in an orphanage, from which they were adopted by John Henry
and Hannah Elizabeth Starkweather of Winchester, Connecticut,
and raised in New Haven. Starkweather attended high school in
New Haven, where he apparently developed his artistic bent, and
following graduation, in 1897, he decided to enroll at the Art Students
League in New York, New York. According to a recorded interview
with him, his adoptive parents did not offer encouragement, either
morally or financially, for his artistic endeavors. Despite their lack of
support, he managed to make his own way and was soon immersed
in his studies at the League.
Starkweather studied with Kenyon Cox, one of the founders of the
school, J. Carroll Beckwith and John Henry Twachtman. From Cox,
who followed the rigorous and disciplined approach taught in the
[2] All of the biographical information on Starkweather’s life stems from
my research completed at the Hispanic Society of America and elsewhere,
for the exhibition of his work held at Hunter College in 1988 entitled,
William E.B. Starkweather, 1879-1969, The Travel Pictures, and from the thesis
of Tracy Myers submitted in partial fulfillment of the Master of Arts
Degree from Hunter College, 1990, entitled, Bright Light and Bitter Wind:
A study of William Starkweather.
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Figure 2. All for Art and the World Well Lost. Eastport, Maine. 1920.
European academies, Starkweather gained sound and structured
training in drawing, and, in time, he became an accomplished and
confident draftsman. From Beckwith and Twachtman, he learned
to appreciate and work in color, particularly as the Impressionists
employed it; these two instructors also awakened a passion in him
for working outdoors, en plein air.
At the end of two years of study, and with the encouragement of
his teachers at the Art Students League, Starkweather decided to
do what so many other striving young artists had done and were
doing – study in Paris. He set sail in November, 1899, and upon his
arrival he immediately enrolled in the Academie Colarossi. There
he studied drawing and painting under a number of eminent artists
and began to truly appreciate how enticing a way of life this could
become. Yet, only two months later, a single event changed his life
and convinced him to literally change his course of action.
That life-altering experience occurred in January, 1900, at the Paris
Universal Exhibition. There, Starkweather saw The Sad Inheritance,
a painting by the Spaniard Joaquin Sorolla. It is a large, brilliantly
Figure 3. Eastport, Maine. 1920.
lit, sun-dappled scene of the beach and the sea, showing a group of
some two dozen naked, orphaned boys being helped into the surf
by a tall, black-robed monk. Many of the children are crippled and
pictured with distorted and underdeveloped limbs. Sorolla hoped
the pitiful scene, originally titled, Children of Pleasure, would make
it painfully clear that their sad inheritance is the devastating effects
of syphilis. The painting was highly acclaimed by critics and won
the exhibition’s Grand Prize. It also had a profound influence on
William Starkweather who decided then and there to study with
Sorolla.
A determined Starkweather returned to the United States in January
1901, and moved into a garret on New York City’s Washington
Square South. He found a teaching job at a private boys’ school
nearby and illustrated books in his spare time, working hard to save
money for his proposed sojourn in Spain where he hoped to study
with Sorolla. He wrote to Sorolla, and after several letters with no
response, he decided in 1903 to seek him out in Seville, where he
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Figure 4. Karl Larsson, Grand Manan. 1921.
Figure 5. Painting My Model, Eastport, Maine. 1922.
mistakenly believed him to be, and ask to be his student. So, with
an accumulated $700 in savings, he left to realize his ambitions.
Once in Spain, however, Starkweather providentially settled into a
highly recommended pensione in Madrid, the owner of which was
acquainted with Sorolla. An introduction was orchestrated and the
young, inexperienced artist found himself studying with the master
in Madrid almost immediately. Starkweather quickly discovered
that Sorolla conducted very little of what could be considered
traditional teaching. Rather, the master believed that experience
and concentrated effort was the mistress of learning. Undeterred,
Starkweather was determined to learn what he could from Sorolla,
even if it was confined to painting by his side. In time, he found
that what Sorolla did emphasize to his students was what was really
important to him as an artist: a combination of the drawing facility
of the old masters and the color of the Impressionists. They were
at the core of his work and eventually would become the heart of
Starkweather’s as well.
Starkweather also discovered in the accomplished Sorolla an
enthusiasm he had not encountered before. He was a tireless worker
and devoted himself to painting eight hours a day for most of his
life. His boundless energy and passion manifested itself in his speed
of execution, brilliant sense of color and interest in the effects of
light, particularly sun light, on form. Starkweather absorbed these
lessons well and adopted the master’s approach. In time, he also
learned from the master that anything and everything was worth
painting and he bridged the gaps with all subjects, from landscapes
to portraits, and from genre to religious. Through Sorolla’s eyes, he
also developed an admiration for Sargent and Velasquez. Indeed,
Sorolla was known as the “Spanish Sargent.”
In 1906, after three years at Sorolla’s side, when we can assume he
learned as much as he could from his mentor, Starkweather returned
to the states and settled into another studio, number 60 Washington
Square South. During the next three years, he traveled back and
forth from New York to Europe to paint in Italy and previously
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Figure 6: Spruce & Sea, Grand Manan. 1926.
unexplored areas of Spain. His relationship with Sorolla, however,
was hardly over. In 1909, at the invitation of his patron, Archer M.
Huntington, founder of The Hispanic Society of America, Joaquin
Sorolla ventured to the United States. Arrangements were made in
advance for a large traveling exhibit of Sorolla’s works and for several
portrait commissions, including that of President William Howard
Taft. Sorolla wrote to his former student to tell him the news
and Starkweather came to meet the master and escort him to his
hotel. It was then that Starkweather was first introduced to Archer
Huntington. Realizing what an asset the Spanish-speaking young
American could be to Sorolla, Huntington engaged Starkweather
to accompany the master as translator and administrator for the
exhibition venue. This was a considerable responsibility as the
exhibit – and its 356 paintings -- was scheduled to travel from New
York to Buffalo and, finally, to Boston, and Starkweather oversaw
the crating and uncrating of the works. In between, he traveled
with Sorolla to translate as he fulfilled his portrait commission
obligations. During this time, Starkweather also developed a series
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Figure 7: Rocks & Sea, Grand Manan. 1930.
of lectures on Sorolla and on Spanish art and published the first of
more than a dozen essays and books on the subject. And, with the
tireless energy of the master who taught him, he still found time to
paint and build on his body of work.
Starkweather’s close ties with Sorolla and his involvement with
the traveling exhibit also led to a fruitful and lasting relationship
with Archer Huntington. Obviously impressed with the young
Starkweather, Huntington sent him to Europe in 1910 to procure
medallions for the American Numismatic Society, another
institution he created and favored. The trip took Starkweather
all over Europe and when he returned Huntington appointed
him assistant curator of The Hispanic Society. That same year,
Starkweather ventured to Bermuda, specifically to paint. By the
following year, 1911, he was again on the road escorting another
Sorolla exhibition to Chicago and St. Louis.
It was shortly after the second Sorolla exhibit that Starkweather
began to develop his pattern of traveling, painting and exhibiting,
Figure 8: Swallow Tail Light, Grand Manan. 1934.
a schema that would continue to sustain him for a good deal of his
life. He embarked on a long, extensive stay in Europe and spent
time in Italy, Spain and France, even managing to visit with Sorolla
in Biarritz. During his stay, he amassed a considerable body of work,
painting landscapes, figurative compositions, portraits and nudes.
In 1913, he returned once again to New York’s Hispanic Society, with
a commission to paint for posterity the interior of the museum, while
he continued to maintain his curatorial position. The considerable
body of work Starkweather brought back from his travels, including
some 28 paintings, became the basis for his first one-man exhibit in
1914 at the Folsom Gallery in New York, New York. He also took
up residence at yet another Washington Square South studio, this
time number 43.
For about 25 years, Starkweather lived in Greenwich Village around
Washington Square Park. Between 1913 and 1916 alone, he lived in
at least three different studios in the area. From them, he worked on
a series of park views, scenes of lower Manhattan, and a number of
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Figure 9: On a Magdalen Island Beach, Havre Aubert. 1937.
figurative compositions. Anxious to work on much larger paintings,
Starkweather eventually moved to number 45 Washington Square
South. In a letter to Archer Huntington, he explains that he finally
has a studio with “… ceilings so high it is possible to put together the
large painting which has been [so] long in preparation.” [3]
The painting, Portrait of Margaret Donegan, A Studio Scrub Woman,
is undoubtedly the largest and most ambitious painting of his career.
The painting is now lost and few details of it are left, but from the
photograph (fig. 1) reproduced here, which shows the painting, the
interior of Starkweather’s studio and Starkweather himself seated in
a chair, it is possible to estimate its size at approximately 12-feet high
by six-feet wide. The subject of the painting is the scrubwoman,
Margaret Donegan, who is mourning her dead son. Donegan is
[3] Letter from WEBS to Archer Huntington dated May 15, 1916. Rare
Books and Manuscripts Collection, Hispanic Society of America, New
York.
Figure 10: Northern Waters, Chuck Ladd, Entry Island. 1938.
portrayed in the center of the canvas; on her right an artist works
on a painting of a nude while his model poses on the opposite side
of the canvas to the left of Donegan. Clearly, both the artist and the
model are absorbed in their work and oblivious to the distress of the
central figure. Above Margaret Donegan, in a semi-circular lunette,
her son is pictured being mourned and cradled by Mary and Jesus
in a classic pieta composition. The work occupied Starkweather
for years and was the centerpiece of the 35 paintings in his second
exhibit at the Folsom Gallery in 1916. The critics both praised and
derided the work. While some thought it was a sincere effort to
portray the devastation of the ignored mother in mourning, others
found it sentimental and overly religious. The criticism, and the
fact that the exhibition was not a great financial success, must have
been a blow to Starkweather. It obviously led him to think about his
future livelihood, and by 1919, Starkweather began a new and long
teaching career, which included positions at Cooper Union, Pratt
Institute, the Traphagen School and, eventually, Hunter College,
from where he retired.
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Figure 12: Sunlit Cliffs, Magdalen Islands. 1938.
Figure 11: An Artist’s Bedroom, Grand Manan. 1938.
In 1920, keeping with his habit of traveling, painting and exhibiting,
Starkweather decided to begin the first of many trips to Maine and
the Maritime Provinces of Canada. It was also the beginning of
his interest in watercolor, to which eventually he became devoted.
In fact, during the last half of his life, the greatest portion of
Starkweather’s work was done in watercolor. Whether or not this
change in medium was related to the disappointment of his final
show at the Folsom Gallery is impossible to know, but the facility,
speed and fluidity he adapted in his use of watercolor served him
well for the rest of his professional life. In addition, he established
a new work pattern that he would follow for many years. We know
that he always painted while he traveled, but at this time in his life,
his travels took a different turn. He took trips with small, intimate
groups of friends – specifically as painting sojourns. He worked
continually, recording visually the places he visited, the people
around him, and the rooms he stayed in. In this sense, he followed
in the tradition of a long line of artists whose travels became their
works: Sargent’s visions of Venice, Twachtman’s views of Newport
waters, Chase’s Long Island beaches, Homer’s brilliant Caribbean
series and Hopper’s Cape Cod paintings. For Starkweather and
friends in 1920, the place was Eastport, Maine. The brilliant summer
light captured in broad brush strokes of pure color juxtaposed with
bold contrasts of light and dark are ever-recurring characteristics of
his work. The intensity and concentration of the artist lost in his
work in the compelling 1920 portrait of Lars Hoftrup make the title
All for Art and the World Well Lost (fig. 2) wonderfully accurate.
Also in 1920 Starkweather painted a view of the town of Eastport in
Eastport, Maine (fig. 3), with its church and steeple in the background
and its houses and boats afloat in the foreground, all flooded with
the brilliant summer light in strokes of shimmering color. The town,
quaint and picturesque, evokes a time of tranquility and serenity,
just as Starkweather saw it, and just as one might see it today.
In the summers of 1921 and 1922, Starkweather and his group
returned to the picturesque sites, dividing their time between
Eastport, Maine, and Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick,
Canada, just off the Maine coast. The artist captured painting on
Grand Manan Island in the watercolor, Karl Larson (fig. 4), is so
engrossed in his labor, he seems oblivious to the waves crashing
on the craggy rocks below him. Yet there is a serenity and peace
in his absorption, accentuated by Starkweather’s clever use of the
churning white foam, halo-like around the artist’s head. It frames
the dark shadowed face and dark brown hair with a light that is
almost spiritual, if not angelic.
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Figure 13: At Cape St. Mary, Nova Scotia. 1954.
On the other hand, one can only imagine the combinations of fun
and freedom and passion for hard work that Starkweather realized
as he executed Painting My Model in 1922 (fig. 5). While it is tempting
to take the painting literally and imagine the model a local waitress
from a restaurant in Eastport frequented by Starkweather and his
friends, it is hardly conceivable such an event could have actually
taken place in 1922, nor could she have lasted more than a few
minutes in the frigid waters off Northern Maine. The image of the
artist painting himself painting his model evokes humorous flights
of fantasy as well as a kind of mysticism, which is evident in many of
his other works. Yet, this work is a tour de force with radiant light
playing over the artist and rock, and the model misty and distant in
the washed out, softened hues of aerial perspective.
In Spruce and Sea (fig. 6), painted in 1926, on Grand Manan Island,
Starkweather does not revert to the romantic and softened images
he executed in watercolor, rather he uses the bolder, more powerful
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oils to depict the gnarled and twisted image of a spruce tree, battered
and ravaged by North Atlantic winds. The coast and rocky shore
are clearly below the promontory the spruce tree stubbornly clings
to. We can almost feel the cold wet wind the tree endures, which
is somehow mitigated by the sight of seagulls floating gently on the
same rough wind, and the same spruce tree basking in the beautiful
play of the setting sun on waves rolling into shore.
In Rocks and Sea, 1930 (fig. 7), and Swallow Tail Light [House] (fig.
8), done four years later in 1934, both on Grand Manan Island,
Starkweather employs watercolor again. Both pictures have the
same sun-dappled quality and strong bold shadows of the earlier
work, but they seem a bit less lyrical, a bit less romantic. This use of
watercolors, then oils, then watercolors again, leads one to believe
that while Starkweather focused more on the aqueous medium
in this later phase of his life, he continued to use oils where they
seemed more appropriate to the subject or scene before him.
In 1937 and in 1938, Starkweather and his friends began to venture
much further afield. Far above the island of Nova Scotia is a tiny
archipelago, the Magdalen Islands. One can see on the enclosed
map what an arduous trip it must have been, probably taking days
by car and hours by several ferries, to arrive at place that must
have seemed like the most remote place on earth. In the lovely
watercolor, On A Magdalen Island Beach (fig. 9), in the tiny town of
Havre Aubert, on Entry Island, we find what must have been a fairly
common sight, a couple of old Boston whalers past their prime, side
by side, flanked by rusting anchors. We can tell the whalers are
no longer serviceable because they are doubling now as planters in
the backyard of the nearby house. In the 1938 watercolor, Northern
Waters, Chuck Ladd, Entry Island (fig. 10), Starkweather also recorded
Mr. Ladd on Entry Island, silhouetted against the sea, and so
immersed in his painting he seems to notice neither the turbulent
waters, nor the cold gray sky surrounding him. Although we see but
a small portion of the rocky shore he sits on, we get the impression
that it encircles the entire island.
Back on Grand Manan Island we have perhaps my favorite image of
all. It is a watercolor of Starkweather’s hotel room depicting what
these trips must have been like for these adventurous painters. In
An Artist’s Bedroom (fig. 11), 1938, we see the simple trappings of a
world gone by: the floral wallpaper, washstand, basin and pitcher,
clothes hung helter-skelter, interspersed everywhere with the
fruits of Starkweather’s labor. Yet, despite its rustic simplicity, the
appropriate jacket and tie for dinner hang on the wall, testament to
the gentility of the time. Ironically, just above that jacket and tie,
we can see what looks like a watercolor version of the same view of
the Tides Institute & Museum of Art oil, Sunlit Cliffs (fig. 12). This
painting, also done in 1938, is a brilliant little oil (12 x 16 inches) with
a richness and impasto that only oils can provide. The hill the artist
stands on casts its shadow over the promontory below as the sun
glistens in the blue-green sea beyond. It must be early mid-morning
as the brilliant sun, rising in the east behind Starkweather, glistens
off the white and pink rocks and the shadow slowly shrinks behind
the oncoming noon day sun.
The cover painting for this catalogue, Coast at Peggy’s Cove, 1939, and
this last painting, At Cape St. Mary, 1954 (fig. 13), were both painted
on Canada’s Nova Scotia, but are separated by some 15 years. The
painting, At Cape St. Mary, painted in somber browns and grays,
and weighted by the heavy impasto of oils, shows the jagged and
battered rocky coast of Nova Scotia. These coastal outcroppings
and massive boulders were witness to centuries of change, and the
timeless assault of winds and waves. They serve as a metaphor for
Starkweather’s long and weathered life. By this time, at age 75, he
had witnessed the great transition from the 19 th to the 20 th century,
both world wars, and the Korean Conflict. He must have felt at
this moment in his life the enormous weight of such extraordinary
events, and it must have been a time of great reflection.
In just a few years, Starkweather’s eyesight would begin to fail,
yet, ever determined, he continued to paint even with the aid
of a magnifying glass. Sometime in the early 1960s, however,
Starkweather moved into the Golden Manor convalescent home in
New Haven, Connecticut, and in 1969, just two days short of his
90 th birthday, he passed away. He was buried in the Starkweather
family plot in Winchester, Connecticut; his old and used palette,
which was cast in bronze, marked his grave. Sadly it was stolen
sometime after his burial and has never been returned.
Prof. Anthony Panzera
Hunter College, CUNY
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Map of Maine and the Maritimes Provinces of Canada
Showing Travels of William Starkweather
1. Eastport, Maine
2. Grand Manan, New Brunswick
3. Cape St. Mary, Nova Scotia
4. Port Maitland, Nova Scotia
5. Peggy’s Cove, Nova Scotia
6. Entry Island, Magdalen Islands
7. Harve Aubert, Magdalen Islands
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William Starkweather’s Life in Brief
1879 Born May 16, Edinburgh, Scotland?
1884 Brought to the United States by his mother and adopted by
John and Hannah Starkweather of Winchester, Connecticut.
Attends Hillhouse High School in New Haven.
1896-99 Attends The Art Students’ League. Instructors include
Twachtman, Cox, Bridgeman, Blum and DeCamp.
1899- Attends Academie Colarossi in Paris. Instructors include Collin and
1901 Gustav Courtois.
1901-03 Teaches in private boys’ school and illustrates books.
• Studies with Joaquin Sorolla in Spain.
1909 Meets with Sorolla in the United States. Group exhibition at the
Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York.
• Starkweather appointed assistant curator of Hispanic Society.
1910 Travels to Bermuda to paint.
• Tours the United States with the Sorolla exhibition.
• Travels to Articoli-Corrado, Italy, to paint with Wilford Conrow. Exhibits with Societe des Artistes Francais, Paris
(also 1926).
1914 Has solo exhibit at Folsom Galleries, New York, New York (also 1916, 1927).
Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York (also 1915, 1917).
1915 Travels to Essex, Massachusetts to paint. Group exhibit at Albright Art
Gallery, Buffalo, New York.
1916 Group exhibit at McDowell Club, New York, New York. Solo show at Folsom Galleries.
1917 First Society of Independent Artists show. Exhibits with Chase, Sloan, Henri, Glackens, Butler (also 1920).
1919 Group exhibits at Guild of American Painters, Babcock Galleries, New York, New York (also 1921-23), Society of Independent
Artists and Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York. Joins Salamagundi Club, New York Watercolor Club.
1921 Solo exhibit, Gallerie Intime, New York (Reviewed November 1921, The Arts, vol. II, pages 111-112.) Also group shows at
American Watercolor Society and New York Watercolor Club, New York, New York. (Also 1923-1927, 1929, 1931-36). Also in
group show at Powell Gallery, New York, New York.
1923 Solo show at New York Public Library, 115th Street branch. Group exhibits: Society of the Aquarellists, Ainslie Galleries, New
York City and The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York (1934, 1935).
1924 Group shows at City Club, New York, New York and Popular Vote for Oils, New Haven, Connecticut.
1925 Travels to Italy to paint in Tuscany. Group exhibit at Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Receives Mrs. William K.
Vanderbilt Prize for Watercolor. Also wins Dana Gold Medal for Watercolor, Pennsylvania Academy of Arts.
1926 Group shows at The Art Institute of Chicago; Mystic Artists, Mystic, Connecticut, and Societe des Artistes, Paris.
Wins Jones Prize for Watercolor, Baltimore, Maryland and elected to American Watercolor Society.
1927 Solo show, Folsom Galleries, New York, New York. Group exhibit at Allied Artists of America, New York,
New York. (1928, 1931-33, 1943).
1929 Solo show at Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, Missouri and Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia,
13
Pennsylvania. Wins Philadelphia Prize for Watercolor, Academy of Fine Arts.
1930 Group exhibit at Philadelphia Art Alliance, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1933 Group exhibit with Brooklyn Society of Artists, Grant Studios, Brooklyn, New York, (1934, 1936, 1943-Brooklyn Museum).
1934 One-man exhibit at Pratt Institute of Art, Brooklyn, New York. Group show at Art Association of Newport, Newport,
Rhode Island.
1936-46 Taught watercolor classes at Hunter College, New York, New York.
1937 One-man show at Fifteen Gallery, New York, New York. Group exhibits in Museum of the City of New York and 70th Annual
American Watercolor Society show.
1938 Solo show at Fifteen Gallery, New York, New York.
1939 Solo show at Fifteen Gallery, New York, New York.
1940 Solo show at Fifteen Gallery, New York, New York.
1948 Museum of Art, Endless Caverns, new Market, Virginia, housed 55 Starkweather paintings.
1962 Centennial Exhibition of American Water Color Society, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York.
1966 Represented in the Centennial Exhibition of the American Watercolor Society, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
New York. One-man exhibit at Showcase Art Gallery, New York, New York.
1969 Starkweather dies in New Haven, Connecticut.
1988 Solo exhibit, The Travel Pictures, Leubsdorf Gallery, Hunter College, New York, New York.
1989 One-man show, Vantage Points, Hickory Museum of Art, Hickory, North Carolina, Saint John’s Museum of Art, North
Carolina.
1998 Hollis Taggart Gallery, New York, New York.
2001 Spainerman Gallery, New York, New York (also 2005, 2006).
2007 Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, New York, Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, Tennessee.
2008 Taft Museum of Art, Cinncinnati, Ohio.
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William Starkweather:
List of Works in the Exhibition
Peter Falotico (PF) Collection Plus Two from the Tides Institute & Museum of Art (#40 & 41)
Plus Map and Catalogue Numbers
Fig.# PF# Title Location Medium Year Size MAP#
3 Under Brooklyn Bridge Winter New York, New York Oil 1915 11x14
5 Lower New York from Battery New York, New York Oil 1916 11x14
2 7 All for Art and the World Well Lost Eastport, Maine WC 1920 21x21 1
3 8 Eastport, Maine Eastport, Maine WC 1920 20x20 1
4 10 Karl Larsson Grand Manan Island WC 1921 20x20 2
11 At Grand Manan Island Grand Manan Island Oil 1922 12x16 2
5 12 Painting My Model Eastport, Maine WC 1922 21x21 1
6 16 Spruce and Sea Grand Manan Island Oil 1926 21x28 2
7 17 Rocks and Sea Grand Manan Island WC 1930 22x22 2
8 18 Swallow Tail Light Grand Manan Island WC 1934 21x21 2
9 22 On a Magdalen Island Beach Havre Aubert, Can. WC 1937 21x21 6
23 An Artist’s Bedroom Magdalen Island WC 1938 21x21 6
11 24 An Artist’s Bedroom Grand Manan Island WC 1938 21x21 2
25 Bright Morning Port Maitland WC 1938 17x22 4
26 No. 1 Road to the Sea Entry Island, Canada WC 1938 21x21 6
10 27 Northern Waters, Chuck Ladd Entry Island, Canada WC 1938 21x21 7
28 Post Office at Havre-Aubert Entry Island, Canada Oil 1938 12x16 6
29 Road To the Sea Entry Island, Canada WC 1938 21x21 6
COVER 30 Coast at Peggy’s Cove Nova Scotia, Canada Oil 1939 12x16 5
13 33 At Cape St. Mary Nova Scotia, Canada Oil 1954 12x16 3
40 Northern Lights Magdalen Island Oil 1938 12x16 5
12 41 Sunlit Cliffs Magdalen Island Oil 1938 12x16 5
15
Acknowledgements
The Tides Institute & Museum of Art deeply thanks Peter Falotico for his willingness to share his remarkable and extensive collection
of William Starkweather’s paintings for this exhibition. He has been a consistent promoter of William Starkweather for many, many
years. This exhibition represents the first time that these works have been shown to the public outside of New York. Their exhibition
represents a homecoming of sorts to a coastal area where Willliam Starkweather so frequently worked.
Deep thanks are also due to Prof. Anthony Panzera of Hunter College in New York for agreeing to tackle the task of writing an essay
for this catalogue that explores William Starkweather’s work in Maine and the Maritime Provinces and situates this work within
Starkweather’s entire career. He has performed a remarkable feat in assembling the essay in short order.
We are very grateful to the Smithsonian American Art Museum for permission to use a photograph taken by Peter A. Juley & Son of
William Starkweather in his studio.
Finally, we wish to acknowledge with deep thanks the charitable contribution of Jim, Andrea, Christopher and Kelly Allen of Poquott,
New York, towards the costs of producing this exhibition catalogue.
© 2008, Anthony Panzera, “William E.B. Starkwather: Maine & the Maritime Provinces of Canada.”
© 2008, Tides Institute & Museum of Art.
This exhibition catalogue has been printed in an edition of 1,000 copies by Penmor Lithographers of Lewiston, Maine.
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