Editor's note: The Hickory Museum of Art provided
source material to Resource Library for the following article or
essay. If you have questions or comments regarding the source material,
please contact the Hickory Museum of Art directly through either this phone
number or web address:
Landscapes From the Permanent
Collection: Part II
This summer of 2000
featured Landscapes from the Permanent Collection exhibition, a seldom
seen suite of landscape preparatory sketches by Arthur Bowen Davies, is
followed by a second version of this popular exhibition. With the Davies
sketches going back into storage, the Museum will exhibit an additional
work by Wolf Kahn; landscapes by Ohio landscape painter Charles Basham;
additional works by George Pearse Ennis, and one painting by Paul Dougherty,
No Man's Bay.
Curator Mary Agnes Beach discusses below the life and work
of William Starkweather, an artist represented in the exhibit.
- William Edward Bloomfield Starkweather was born William Edward Bloomfield
in 1876 in Belfast, Ireland. In 1884, he was brought to the United States
by his mother, who died soon thereafter. He was then adopted by the Starkweathers
of Winchester, CT. From 1897 to 1899, Starkweather studied at the Art Students
League with John Henry Twachtman, the much-lauded American Impressionist
painter who was part of the group known as "The Ten." The influence
of the Impressionist style of rendering nature is evident in the flickering
light effects and the multiple applications of impasto strokes and dots
of color in the Starkweather landscape [The Cove in Swallowtail Light
at Twilight], which is part of the Hickory Museum of Art's Permanent
Collection.
-
- Starkweather later pursued art instruction in Europe, studying at the
Académie Colorossi in Paris from 1899 to 1901 and then with Sorolla
in Madrid from 1904 to 1906. Following this, he went to Italy for three
years; there, he met and shared a house with Wilford Conrow, the key advisor
to Museum founder Paul Whitener as Whitener worked to build the Museum's
Permanent Collection. Conrow thought highly of Starkweather and built a
lifelong friendship with him.
-
- Back in the United States, Starkweather worked for the Spanish Society
in New York and organized exhibitions of Sorolla's work both in 1909 and
1911. From 1910 to 1916 he was the Curator at the Hispanic Society; following
this, he taught art in New York City public schools and at Hunter College,
also in New York City. Additionally, Starkweather was a published art historian,
writing on Francisco Goya and John Singer Sargent among others.
-
- Starkweather's and Conrow's friendship led to Conrow's cultivation
of a donation of eight Starkweather paintings to the Hickory Museum of
Art's Permanent Collection. Correspondence between Wilford Conrow and Paul
Whitener on that subject, as well as a letter to Whitener from Starkweather
himself, are in the Museum's files. These document the negotiations that
led to this wonderful treasure we have in our Museum and vividly illustrate
the enthusiasm with which Conrow pursued the gifts. In the bold strokes
that characterize Conrow's script, he is effusive in praise of Starkweather:
"In my opinion William is a very big man, a very big artist,"
he writes (letter from Wilford S. Conrow to Paul Whitener, November 6,
1954, 5:30 PM; New York, NY). At Conrow's urging, Starkweather was interested
in placing his work in the Hickory Museum of Art, feeling that in the long
run his work would serve a purpose here that could not be realized by selling
to a private collector. Five of Starkweather's paintings can be seen in
Landscapes From the Permanent Collection: Part II, on display on
the Mezzanine level through December 31, 2000.
The Hickory Museum of Art is located at 243 Third Avenue
NE, Hickory, NC 28603. Hickory Museum of Art presents changing exhibits
and a permanent collection of 19th-century through contemporary American
art. Works by Alfred Thompson Bricher, William Merritt Chase, and Gilbert
Charles Stuart are featured. Please see the museum's website for hours and
admission fees.
Read more articles and essays concerning this institutional
source by visiting the sub-index page for the Hickory
Museum of Art in Resource Library.
Visit the Table
of Contents for Resource Library for thousands
of articles and essays on American art, calendars, and much more.
Copyright 2006 Traditional Fine Arts Organization, Inc., an Arizona nonprofit corporation. All rights
reserved.