e-Newsletter | June 11, 2021 |
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The Sun is Shining & the Garden Tour is set for Tomorrow & Sunday!
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Everything's Coming Up Garden Tour
Newburyport’s Museum of Old Newbury will host its 2021 annual in-person, “hybrid” garden tour June 12 & 13, 2021, 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. The theme for this year’s tour is, Sowing the Seeds: A Season of Renewal and will feature eight gardens located in Newburyport and Newbury. Artists, a photo contest and plant sale (cash or check only) will also be part of the weekend.
TICKETS MUST BE PURCHASED ONLINE AND MAY BE PURCHASED ONSITE DURING THE WEEKEND VIA YOUR PHONE OR TABLET. Click here.
Your ticket is an electronic booklet link (accessible via cell phone or tablet) and includes addresses, garden information, lunch suggestions and more. It will be sent to the email used to purchase tickets early afternoon today, Friday, June 11, 2021, and will be automatically included in your confirmation email for tickets purchased over the weekend.
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Iris propagated from the Cushing House's own gardens is just one of the items available at the popular plant sale. Visit the museum's nursery, located in the back garden on the Fruit Street side. Open Saturday and Sunday, June 12 & 13, 2021 from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.; cash or check only. Photo credit: Kristen Fehlhaber
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This link will be shareable commensurate with the number of tickets purchased. An option to print will also be available.
And don't forget to send us your favorite garden images from the tour...we love colorful, vibrant closeups! Be sure to include your name and what number garden you are in and email: info@newburyhistory.org or text: 617.429.2217. Prizes will be awarded and select images to be featured in upcoming e-Newsletters.
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As Laura Coombs Hills transitioned from her highly successful career as a miniaturist to a pastel painter, her favorite subject quickly became flowers harvested from her own garden. Mixed Flowers in a Bowl, Laura Coombs Hills. From the collections of the Museum of Old Newbury. |
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Over the years, much has been written about American artist and Newburyport native Laura Coombs Hills (1859-1952). This week, in celebration of the museum's 42nd Annual Garden Tour, we want to highlight what the artist referred to as her "portraits of flowers." |
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66 Chestnut Street, Boston. Laura Hills' apartment and studio that she shared with her sister, Lizzie, and her mother. |
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Indeed, this is a much better term than still life as her floral pastels breathe with "dancing sunlight and vibrant atmosphere" as described in an editorial in the November 23, 1939 edition of the Boston Herald.
Laura Hills studied at the Cowles Art School in Boston. The school, which operated between 1883 and 1900, was located in a studio building at 148 Dartmouth Street, only a few blocks from the Museum of Fine Arts. The curriculum included both painting and drawing still life. Other artists affiliated with the school are Emil Carlsen, Childe Hassam, and Abbott Fuller Graves. Hills later studied at the Art Students League in New York City under William Merritt Chase.
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During the 1880s, she designed greeting cards, illustrated children’s books and decorated pottery, and in 1889, she made her Boston debut with a solo exhibition of pastels at the J. Eastman Chase Gallery located at Hamilton Place and Washington Street.
During the 1890s until about 1920, the artist focused on painting miniature portraits on ivory. These received great acclaim and provided enough income for her to maintain an apartment and studio on Beacon Hill and to design and build a house in Newburyport. She named the latter "The Goldfish" after one of her popular portraits of a favorite young model with flowing red hair named Grace Alexander Mutell.
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Laura Coombs Hills creating a model of the Goldfish, her Newburyport home (courtesy Antique Photo World) and The Goldfish from the collections of the Museum of Old Newbury. |
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From about 1920 for the next 25 years Laura Hills produced flower subjects executed in pastels. She was particular about her "tools" and purchased her pastels from Henri Roche, the oldest pastel manufacturer still in existence. The company had its origins in 1720 and moved from Versailles to Paris in 1766. Hand ground and richly luminous, they are considered to be the finest in the world. For a history of this fascinating company click here.
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Rhododendrons and Azaleas (left) and Full Blown Tulips, 1941, both by Laura Coombs Hills and from the collections of the Museum of Old Newbury. |
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Laura Hills benefitted from the generosity of Boston art patrons and even during the Depression her pastels commanded high prices. In 1939 the Boston Herald reported: "The queue curled around the building to admit her loyal following of collectors who purchased virtually every piece in the show by noon. Pauline Shaw Fenno, daughter of Quincy Adams Shaw, who had a keen eye that was developed from her exposure to the art assembled by her parents, purchased seventeen pastels from Doll and Richards between 1932 to 1939." The artist continued to exhibit new works every year until 1947 when she turned eighty-eight.
The artist's reach extended far beyond Boston. She exhibited at the Paris Exposition, the Society of Washington Artists, the Pan-American Exposition, the St. Louis Exposition, the Pacific-Panama Exposition, and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Each of these won her medals and prizes establishing her as this country's foremost pastel artist.
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Puzzle Me This...
The Duke of Newcastle
The ship was captained by G.B. Arey of Newburyport. Painting dates from 1869. From the collections of the Museum of Old Newbury.
Click on image to begin.
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Miss a Recent MOON Program? Watch here. |
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Thanks to the wonder of the Zoom platform, all of our programs are recorded and available online shortly after presentation. Visit our website for upcoming events, previous recordings, including the four 2020 Virtual Garden Tours, our Annual Meeting, children's and holiday programs, as well as all episodes of "Yeat Yeat, Don't Tell Me!"
In lieu of a printed program book, we will be featuring monthly events here, as well as maintaining a complete list on our website: www.NewburyHistory.org.
All of our virtual programs are free, however donations are gratefully accepted to help defray speaker fees.
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Collecting the Globe
Peabody Essex Museum's Associate Curator George Schwartz shared the practices of collecting, exhibiting and interpreting a diversity of international objects (including the first stuffed penguin brought back from the Falkland Islands) and art in the early United States. "Collecting the Globe" is the story of The East India Marine Society Museum, one of the most influential collecting institutions in 19th century America. It was the precursor to what is the PEM.
From 1799 to 1867, when Salem was a premier American port for international trade, the museum's collection developed as a nexus of global exchange, with donations of artwork, crafts and flora and fauna pouring in from distant ports of call.
Watch his presentation "Collecting the Globe" here.
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Just like Hollywood, "Yeat Yeat, Don't Tell Me!" is going on summer hiatus.
Hosts, Jack Santos, Custom House Maritime Museum and Colleen Turner Secino, Museum of Old Newbury, are heading deep into the research tunnels for the months of July and August, returning the Friday after Labor Day, September 10, 2021.
Secino quips, "As they say in Hollywood, we will have 28 shows 'in the can.' We could put up re-runs, but decided we would spare our beloved viewers. You can, however, binge watch here, if so inclined."
Join us today, Friday, June 11, 2021 at noon; just Zoom in here. Yeat Yeat, we can't wait.
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REGISTER:
Thursday, July 1, 2021 @ 7:00 p.m.
The First Religious Society Unitarian Universalist and the Museum of Old Newbury kick off the July 4th holiday with a virtual community reading of Frederick Douglass's impassioned 1852 speech, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” Lend your voice to this powerful participatory event.
The reading will be followed by a discussion led by humanities scholar Edward Carson. Carson, an independent historian, is also Dean of Multicultural Education and a member of the history department at The Governor's Academy, Byfield, Massachusetts.
This is a virtual event. Register here and a Zoom link will be sent closer to the date. Registration closes at 4:30 p.m. on day of the event.
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Something is Always Cooking at the Museum
Mix up a batch of Ruth Foskett's slushy recipe before you head out for this weekend's 42nd Annual Garden Tour and enjoy a frosty, refreshing adult beverage when you get home!
Summer Slush
3 ounces Cointreau
3 ounces vodka
6 ounces orange juice
6 ounces pineapple juice
Mix well. Freeze in plastic container. Serves 4.
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During this difficult period of COVID-19, we rely on your support more than ever. We continue to develop new, online programs for you to enjoy and keep us connected and look forward to in-person events as protocols for safety loosen. We hope, if you are able, that you will consider a donation to the museum. Thank you for your continued support.
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Museum e-Newsletter made possible through the
generosity of our sponsors:
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Museum of Old Newbury
98 High Street
Newburyport, MA 01950
978-462-2681
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