THE FLOWERING OF AMERICAN IMPRESSIONISM IN GLOUCESTER
How Frank Duveneck fostered the rise of a new painting genre in a coastal Massachusetts town Fig. 1. The Yellow Pier Shed by Frank Duveneck (1848–1919), c. 1900–1905. Oil on canvas, 36 by 40 inches. Collection of Michael Owen and James Yost. Frank Duveneck is not usually associated with Gloucester, Massachusetts, nor with paintings in an impressionist style. He has always been best known for the dark, Munich-style paintings he made at the outset of his career, and, in fact, most of his impressionist work from Gloucester was not exhibited until long after his death. While many of these Gloucester paintings are quick outdoor sketches, a few of them stand among Duveneck’s very best and most ambitious works, notably a remarkable view from Banner Hill, The Yellow Pier Shed (Fig. 1). These paintings deserve to be better known. Through the summer classes he taught in Gloucester, Duveneck played a major role in transforming Gloucester into an art colony, and attracting other major American painters to work there. Figures such as Theodore Wendel, Willard Leroy Metcalf, John H. Twachtman, and Childe Hassam produced masterful impressionist renderings of Gloucester, many of them also portraying the vista from Banner Hill. Several of these paintings surely rank among the all-time masterpieces of American impressionism. Duveneck’s role in luring such gifted painters to this spot has been largely passed over, despite the extensive scholarly literature on his work. Fig. 2. Gloucester Harbor by Theo- dore Wendel (1857 or 1859–1932), 1900–1915. Signed “Theo Wendel” at lower left. Oil on canvas, 19 1/2 by 35 1/4 inches. Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago. A little historical background will put Duveneck’s Gloucester work in context. He was born in Covington, Kentucky, just