The Power of Place

Cape Ann Museum unveils a tremendous gift of 300 works from the Janet & William Ellery James Collection

Through March 24, 2024
Cape Ann Museum
27 Pleasant Street
Gloucester, MA 01930
t: (978) 283-0455
home.capeannmuseum.org

Coming Home: The Transformative Gift of the Janet & William Ellery James Collection is the first exhibition curated from the 300-plus artworks recently gifted to the Cape Ann Museum by the James’ of Palm Beach, Florida, who have strong ties to the peninsula. It constitutes the largest single gift of works in the Cape Ann Museum’s 148-year history.

The landmark donation brings new genres and Cape Ann-inspired masterworks to the museum’s holdings, including significant works by Winslow Homer, George Aarons, Cecilia Beaux, Stuart Davis, Adolph Gottlieb, Marsden Hartley, Eric Hudson, Anna Hyatt Huntington, Paul Manship, Jane Peterson, March Avery, Fern Coppedge, Arthur Dove, Thomas Hart Benton, Robert Henri, Rockwell Kent and others.

Mildred Jones (1899-1991), Finnish Knitter, Lanesville. Oil on canvas, 36¼ x 30 in. The James Collection, Promised Gift of Janet & William Ellery James to the Cape Ann Museum.

Coming Home will feature 33 pieces selected to complement the exhibition Edward Hopper & Cape Ann: Illuminating an American Landscape which closed in mid-October.

“The ultimate goal with the resulting selection of James Collection works was to highlight the singularly unique role that Cape Ann has played both in the shaping of American history and art,” says museum director Oliver Barker. “These pieces were selected…to highlight the many parallels to contemporaries of the Hoppers, in some instances artists that the Hoppers knew well, as well as those working on Cape Ann concurrently who weren’t necessarily closely affiliated with the Edward and Josephine Hopper.”

Marsden Hartley (1877-1943), Wind-Bitten Moors, 1931. Oil on academy board, 18 x 22 in. The James Collection, Promised Gift of Janet & William Ellery James to the Cape Ann Museum.

Highlights on view with special significance to the Hoppers include Marsha Ann M. Tucker, a 1926 portrait by Josephine and Edward’s joint teacher, Robert Henri (1865-1929), and two paintings by Leon Kroll (1884-1974). “It was on Kroll’s invitation that Edward Hopper originally came to Gloucester for the first time in 1912 and both Kroll paintings—Calves Hole, Folly Cove, 1915, and Babson Quarry, Halibut Point, 1913—document day-to-day scenes of local Cape Ann life and are encapsulated in saturated hues,” says Barker.

Jane Peterson (1876-1965), Smith’s Cove, East Gloucester, ca. 1920s. Oil on canvas, 29 x 39 in. The James Collection, Promised Gift of Janet & William Ellery James to the Cape Ann Museum

Also included are two early and pivotal works by Stuart Davis (1892-1964) that attest to Davis’ experimentation with an abstracted vernacular to capture Gloucester’s active working waterfront, a subject that remained a source of inspiration to Davis for many decades.

The current selection of works from the James Collection also includes two paintings by Marsden Hartley (1877-1943) of Dogtown, a long-abandoned early colonial settlement divided between Gloucester and Rockport that has caught the imagination of many artists and writers throughout history. Hartley’s renderings of the area’s striking rock formations are testament as to why.

Harrison Cady (1877-1970), Essex Shipyard, ca. 1930s. Oil on board, 24 x 29 in. The James Collection, Promised Gift of Janet & William Ellery James to the Cape Ann Museum.

“Cape Ann has a colorful, diverse history as one of the most important places for American art, history and culture,” says Barker. “Over the years, the Cape Ann Museum has collected, interpreted and shared the unique art, artifacts and inspiring stories that make this area so important to America and the world. That shared history and the creative catalyst that it embodies has inspired artists for centuries and is the result of the remarkable contributions made by all residents of Cape Ann over millennia, from the original indigenous inhabitants to more the recent presence of fishing and quarrying families.”

George Aarons (1896-1980), Europa, 1941. Bronze, 11 x 10 x 9 in. The James Collection, Promised Gift of Janet & William Ellery James to the Cape Ann Museum.

In Janet and Wilber James’ commitment to assembling works by artists with deep ties to Cape Ann, sculpture has an equally strong presence in the collection. Central to the display is Diana of the Chase executed in 1922 by Anna Hyatt Huntington, with other examples by George Aarons, George Demetrios and Paul Manship.

“The ultimate goal in presenting Coming Home was to showcase the breadth and celebrate what is truly a transformative gift to the museum,” adds Barker. “The James Collection represents a lifelong quest to assemble works by eminent American artists with strong ties to Cape Ann, as well as significant yet lesser-known artists who have illuminated the inexhaustible human spirit that has animate and enriched this region for centuries.”

Frederick Mulhaupt (1871-1938), Morning, Gloucester Harbor, ca. 1920. Oil on canvas, 28 x 54 in. The James Collection, Promised Gift of Janet & William Ellery James to the Cape Ann Museum.

Coming Home, the first showcase of works from the James Collection is now on view at the Cape Ann Museum in Gloucester, Massachusetts, through March 24, 2024.