For this year’s “summer institution,” known as The Nantucket Show, attendees can expect to find excellent examples of antiques, jewelry, decorative objects and fine art—upholding 30-plus years of successful shows. New to the 2024 event is a new location at Bartlett’s Farm in Nantucket, Massachusetts, inside an air-conditioned tent.
Hermann Dudley Murphy (1867-1945), Peony and Kwannon, 1931. Oil on canvas, 30 x 24 in. Framed dimensions: 34 x 28 in., signed, titled and dated ‘1931’ on the reverse. Courtesy of Rehs Galleries.
“The Nantucket Show presents a carefully curated selection of dealers from across the United States, Europe and England exhibiting a diverse range of [work],” says show director Kaye Gregg. “Art dealers participating this year include Rehs Gallery of New York and Rehs Contemporary; Callaghan’s of Shrewsbury, England; David Brooker Fine Art of Woodbury, Connecticut; Antique Fine French Arts of Marseille, France; and Roberto Freitas American Antiques. Works on paper are also well represented by Arader Galleries of Philadelphia and D.M. DeLaurantis of Doylestown, Pennsylvania.
Gregg also notes that besides cutting edge design from antiquities through the contemporary, other exhibitor specialties include American, English and European fine furniture, mid-century modern furniture, antique oriental rugs, ceramics, silver, folk art, jewelry, books, garden antiques, Nantucket items and nautical antiques.
Rehs Galleries owner Howard Rehs shares that the gallery will showcase an impressive selection of 19th- and 20th-century works of art. “All of the paintings will rank among the best the artist has created, and their condition will be exceptional,” he says. This includes a gorgeous oil painting titled Peony and Kwannon, by Hermann Dudley Murphy (1867-1945). 
Daniel Ridgway Knight (1839-1924), Coming Through the Rye. Oil on canvas, 32½ x 26 in., signed and inscribed ‘Paris.’ Courtesy of Rehs Galleries.
“Peony and Kwannon is dated 1931 and represents Murphy’s later work,” Rehs explains. “Between the 1920s and the 1940s, he abandoned popular impressionist subjects in favor of simple floral still-life. In Murphy’s painting, the term ‘Kwannon’ refers to the figure on the textile in the background, more commonly known as Guanyin in Chinese. Guanyin is the figure in Buddhism and Chinese folk religion associated with compassion and mercy…The peonies represent natural beauty, while Guanyin represents mercy and compassion, or elements of inner human beauty.”
He continues, “Peony and Kwannon, however, may reference a Buddhist legend. In one popular story, Guanyin was a princess sentenced to death by her father for refusing to marry the man he had picked for her. After she was executed, she arrived in the afterlife, and immediately, flowers began to sprout from the ashes at her feet. Therefore, Murphy’s placement of the flowers in relation to Guanyin is almost like she is bringing them into being with a wave of her willow branch, not unlike how she turned hell into paradise.”
James Edward Buttersworth (1817-1894), Puritan and Genesta, America’s Cup, ca. 1885. Oil on board, 12 x 16 in., signed lower right. Courtesy of Roberto Freitas American Antiques and Decorative Arts.
Coming from the Roberto Freitas American Antiques and Decorative Arts collection is the inspiring Puritan and Genesta America’s Cup, circa 1885, by James Edward Buttersworth (1817-1894). “[His] most celebrated subjects were those depicting the New York Yacht Club Regatta and the America’s Cup race, which he witnessed the first nine defenses of between 1870 and 1893, as well as the associated trial races,” says a gallery representative. “The present work is believed to be a depiction of the America’s Cup Defense of 1885, portraying the two racing yachts at seat, both yachts with topmast and gaff topsail stowed.”
Exhibit of antiques, objects and fine art at The Nantucket Show 2023.
The highly anticipated show will open with a morning preview from 9 to 10:30 a.m. on Friday, August 9, benefiting the Nantucket Historical Association. Gregg adds that Sunday, August 11, from 11 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. is the popular SIP and SHOP Bloody Mary Morning which also benefits a local charity. The show will conclude on Monday, August 12.
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