Three of us went up to Portland last Thursday to check out "Call of the Coast: Art Colonies of New England" at the Portland Museum of Art. The exhibit, up through Oct. 12, looks at the work of art colonies in Old Lyme and Cos Cob, Connecticut, and in Ogunquit and Monhegan, Maine. Artists including Edward Hopper and Childe Hassam made merry and painted at these venues, sometimes moving from one to another. Their work on view ranges from lovely impressionism in Connecticut to full-on modernism in Maine.
The exhibit is a collaboration between the Portland Museum and the
Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, which means it only covers the four colonies well represented in their collections. It
excludes (as Cate McQuad noted in the Globe) Gloucester and Provincetown, a pretty big loss for an exhibit with "Art Colonies of New England" as a subtitle. But once you get over that, the exhibit is well-researched, drawing ties between artists and their environment and their various teachers.
"Call of the Coast" also gives a good sense of the progression in their work; Monhegan, in particular, inspired a wide spectrum of artistic approaches over the years. The Connecticut colonies' section is heavier on pretty if unexciting impressionist takes by artist like Willard Leroy Metcalf, although the gorgeous and technically challenging Hassam oil called "The Ledges, October in Old Lyme, Connecticut" is one I could stand in front of for hours. Some of the Maine modernist works left me cold, but DeHirsh Margules’s "Monhegan Island Harbor" (left) is a winning use of simpler forms and strokes of bright primary color.
I did find the exhibit a bit underpopulated in the great-works department. The 73 paintings and etchings include only one small, early though very good Hopper ("Monhegan Houses, Maine") and one major Rockwell Kent (the well-known "Wreck of the D. T. Sheridan"). "Painting Summer in New England" at the Peabody Essex a couple of years ago was criticized in some quarters for being a jumble, but it was a livelier collection with more showstoppers on similar subjects.
The great surprise for me in "Call of the Coast" was the two paintings by Clarence Chatterton, who doesn't jump to mind when I think of my favorite painters. His "Road to Ogunquit" (top) was my favorite piece in the exhibit, reminiscent of seaside works by both Winslow Homer and Hopper. Its planes of sun and shade evoking a late summer's afternoon in a way that may have seemed extra poignant on Aug. 20 in this rain-foreshortened season. And his "Boating with Oliver, Ogunquit," seems mysterious and full of implication, even though it's only a portrait of three people riding in the stern of a pleasure craft.
We cruised around the rest of the building briefly, finding a few more great Maine-coast-related pieces on exhibit, including N.C. Wyeth's "Black Spruce Ledge" with its amazing light and son Andrew Wyeth's "Raven's Grove." All in all a satisfying way of finishing off summer.
OK, now the seafood. If you go to Portland for this exhibit or any other reason, on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday, you must find Susan's Fish 'n' Chips at 1135 Forest Ave. in the hinterlands of Portland's North Deering neighborhood. I'd seen the funky little joint on "Chronicle" some months back. It's in a former garage, there's no beer, and the ambiance is all picnic tables and plastic utensils, which may seem more charming on an oceanside dock than on this colorless commercial strip. But seriously, listen up: DEEP FRIED LOBSTER TAILS ON A STICK. Do not go to Portland and not eat one. I had two, and could have eaten five. They're chewy and sweet and dunkable in melted butter. Hear me now, thank me later. You may have noted that we were there on a Thursday, not knowing this treat is normally served weekends only. The counter staff took pity on the out-of-towners: "They just finishing boiling the lobsters. Maybe we can do it." The kid breaded them right in front of me as I stood at the counter. Damn. Talk about great works from the Maine coast.
Images: Clarence Chatterton (United States, 1880–1973), Road to Ogunquit, circa 1940, oil on Masonite, 24 5/8 x 31 1/2 inches, Portland Museum of Art, Maine. Gift of Pendred E. Noyce, 1997.3.2. ; De Hirsh Margules (United States (born Romania), 1899–1965), Untitled [Monhegan Island Harbor], 1947, watercolor on paper, 22 x 30 inches, Portland Museum of Art, Maine. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Harrison D. Horblit, 2003.21.2.; Susan's cellphone snap by me.
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