Saw this really nice show in Worcester yesterday. Lots of good pictures but what made it was that I’ve been to Homer’s studio on Prout’s Neck, outside of Portland, so I can tell the pictures that are directly authentic – because they were outside the door – and those, like the famous image of a woman being rescued, which are studio fabrications. The show brought out the similarities in Homer’s work to artists like Millet, but also his American nature. In painting images, he’s more in the solidity style that you see in Eakins, but where it really shows is his focus on the back lighting; he dims the foreground in landscapes and in a relatively famous picture of women dancing at a campfire in front of the sea, so the sky is lit behind or the sea sparkles in the dark. You don’t see that in European painting.
Also went to the Salisbury Mansion next door. Had a great guide, which really helps when going through old houses. Built in the 1770’s, it was at first about ⅔ a store and ⅓ a residence but as the family made money they took over the space, added walls, etc. It was moved up a hill as Worcester developed around it and in the 1980’s was restored to look as it did in the 1830’s. The house is one of the best documented in the country. They even have the original building contract and many original furnishings. They found the mantle in the main parlor buried in a backyard after it had been removed in 1929! During the siege of Boston, when you had to take sides or be labeled a collaborator, the Boston relatives all moved in so the house was stuffed with people. It’s an open question the degree to which the Salisburys sat on the fence. It was important to show your colors but they seem to have done just enough, given their relative position as successful merchants, to avoid being treated as collaborators. The Salisburys eventually developed the first big commercial industrial mill space in Worcester – and thus in the country – and gave a huge boost to the industrialization of America. They even have the original sign from the store, found in a family attic. It says S. Salifbury, which shows not only the spelling but pronunciation differed as the original had a separate syllable in the middle that we tend to drop. They were the richest people in the count for decades.
Then we went for dinner to RailTrail Flatbread in Hudson. That place is slammed all day on Saturday! The food is good. The cocktails and the food tend to be a little sweet but that’s how people like things. The food is well thought out and carefully prepared.
jomi: playing with perception 