On view at Ogunquit Museum of American Art (OMAA) through mid-November, is an exhibition that explores painter Henry Strater’s love of coastal Maine from his first exposure to the state in 1919, through the following 60 years.

Strater (1896-1987) first visited Ogunquit when it was already a summer haven for artists drawn to its dramatic coastline and unique qualities of light. Soon after enrolling in Hamilton Easter Field’s School of Painting and Sculpture, Strater became a key figure in the local arts community.

Henry Strater (1896-1927), On the Terrace, 1928. Oil on canvas, 19½ x 24¾ in. Gift of the Estate of Henry Strater. 

 

“Strater was a networker,” says David Zimmerman, the museum’s curator of modern and contemporary art. “He made friends with and brought together significant artists and writers of the period together. From his relationship with Earnest Hemingway—a fishing trip the two men took inspired Hemingway’s Old Man and the Sea—to his legacy of founding the Ogunquit Museum of American Art, he was essential to making Ogunquit a central hub for the arts in the 20th century.

Strater put roots down in Ogunquit when he purchased a home in 1925 that overlooked what is now the museum, and where nearly 20 paintings, one sculpture and photos from the museum archives are currently on view. The exhibition, Henry Strater’s Ogunquit, highlights the artist’s deep affinity for that part of coastal Maine through paintings of local landmarks, such as Perkins Cove and Nubble Lighthouse, that still draw visitors to the region today, as well as more intimate pieces of his wife and children.

Henry Strater (1896-1927), Rocks at the Nubble, 1930. Oil on canvas, 30 x 40 in. Gift of the Estate of Henry Strater. 

 

Henry Strater (1896-1927), Nubble in November, 1929. Oil on canvas, 17½ x 30 in. Gift of the artist.

 

On the Terrace is a peaceful patio scene depicting Maggie Strater, Henry’s first wife, reading in a rocking chair, while their child sits on a step facing the viewer. “It is an ordinary, almost banal, scene of the way love and family play out day by day,” says Zimmerman. “We often think of throngs of tourists or plein air painters perched on rocky outcroppings when we think of Ogunquit, but this painting offers the depth of the lives of the artists who came here.”

The Nubble Lighthouse, located just south of Ogunquit in Cape Neddick, is the central subject of Rocks at the Nubble. “Strater was fascinated with painting the rocky coastline of Maine—he was called ‘rock a day Strater’ by his friends,” Zimmerman explains. “More importantly, he painted multiple views of the Nubble at different seasons and times of day, in order to capture the changing environment along the Maine coast.”

Henry Strater (1896-1927), Perkins Cove from the Coe House, 1931. Oil on canvas, Gift of the Estate of Henry Strater. 

 

Accompanying Strater’s scenic paintings is a collection of portraits by Isabella Howland, that depict Strater’s close circle of colleagues and friends, including artists Bernard Karfiol, Reginald Marsh and other figures in the art world.

“Much of our contemporary programming this year reflects on the same motivations that brought Strater and other artists to study in Ogunquit in the 20th century,” Zimmerman adds. “Ogunquit serves as a place of respite to escape, and OMAA was founded to bring artists into dialogue with this unique space and history. Henry Strater’s Ogunquit tries to pull at these motivations.” —

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