We visited "the Berkshires" this week. This is Western Massachusetts. It's filled with rolling hills covered with trees which are part of the Appalachian Range. One half BILLION years ago when Africa rammed North America, the Appalachians were created. They've been losing height ever since, and now "The Berkshires" are worn down into a series of undulating hills. Embedded are very small towns who have revitalized themselves with the tourist industry. This is the center of summer cultural tourism (theater, music and dance) with the Tanglewood Festival being the most well-known. People flock to The Berkshires from New York, Philadelphia and Boston for short summer vacations. This has been happening since 19th century railroads made 'getting here' easy.
Naturally, wealthy people picked out nice hills and built summer getaways. These were actually fairly modest family summer homes rather than the ostentatious mansion'cottages' of Newport. We visited one such Berkshire home this week called "Naumkeag". The house is named for the American Indians who were displaced and decimated by the 17th century settlement of Massachussets.
This was the summer retreat of the Joseph and Caroline Choate family (old New England name). It was designed and built by Stanford White (yes, the infamous one) in 1885 at the height of the gilded age. It was lived in by the family until 1959 when it was turned over to a trust which preserves and maintains it. Everything in this house is original. Nothing is 'of the period' which makes it quite unique. (In all the 'houses' I've toured, this is only the second one with all its original furnishings and bric a brac - the other being in Richmond: May Mount.)
This time it turns out the house and contents were of secondary interest. The Choate family were much more fascinating than the dwelling. Here's Joseph Choate, the owner of the house we toured.
In his era (1860 - 1917), he was incredibly influential and very famous, and as is the case with so many famous people - his fame only lasted his lifetime. He was a lawyer and partner of THE New York City law firm, and his cases included some of the biggest litigation cases of the late 19th and early 20th century. This man was perhaps the first 'corporation' lawyer, but to be fair, he also argued on behalf of some surprising non-corporate clients. He was also a founder of the Metropolitan Art Museum. He hobnobbed with Presidents, and McKinley (who visited Naumkeag) named him Ambassador to Great Britain where he and his wife charmed and cemented the American/English political bond. Hilariously, he also brought back to the United States a bevy of English servants. Boy, I would have liked to have been a fly below those stairs.
His wife was equally interesting. Caroline Dutcher Sterling Choate had to be extensively pursued before she would agree to the marriage. She really wanted to be an artist and was set to go to Paris when he finally won her over. She was famous for her lifelong activism in the cause of education for women - sparked by her own desire to attend Harvard which was closed to her because she was a woman.
This couple seemed to have had everything - wealth, position, friends, and power. However, in one of the most important ways, their lives were misery. They had five children, all of whom lived to adulthood. However, three of them died very early. Their eldest son committed suicide at age 20, their second son was mentally ill. I'm guessing schizophrenia based on the guide's description, and he was institutionalized from the time of his late teens until he died. Their eldest daughter died in her early 30's of colitis after being bedridden by the disease. Their two remaining children - one son and one daughter lived productive lives, but not to the level of fame of their parents. Thanks to her mother's progressive views, Mabel, the surviving daughter who never married, inherited Naumkeag which was her primary residence. She extensively remodeled the gardens over decades, and created the 'trust' which administers and preserves the house today.
Our other destination was the Norman Rockwell Museum (which is housed in the summer home originally built by one of Joseph Choate's law partners). Rockwell, long poo-pooed by the fine arts community as 'an illustrator', thus not REALLY a true artist has been reassessed by the art world, and his star is justly rising. He was famous for his entire adult lifetime as a magazine cover illustrator. His first cover at age 19 was for "Boy's Life", the American Boy Scouting magazine. He became famous for his "Saturday Evening Post" magazine covers. He was assigned twelve to fifteen covers each year for this weekly magazine. For each cover, he created a full sized painting. The painting was then photographed for the cover.
The idea for each painting was conceived by Rockwell. He often created 'studies' which he executed in either charcoals or oils, then re-evaluated and created the final painting. Look at the 'photographs, the 'study' and the 'final' for this cover. This is the same kind of work a 'fine artist' invests in a painting.
Now, see the study. The cop's uniform and pose is chosen, as is the setting, as well as including the soda jerk behind the drug store counter.
Now, in the final painting, there are other differences in the boy's pose, his possessions on the stick, and the soda jerk has morphed into a counter man in a diner.
This is an example of 'setting up' people he knew in a tableau, then photographing them in various poses and costumes. He routinely commissioned his Stockbridge, Massachussets neighbors as models for his magazine cover paintings. The paintings exhibited in the museum were often four by five feet in size and painted in amazing detail.
One large gallery were his 'covers' arranged in chronological order. I picked out several from each decade to give you a flavor of his work. This one was my favorite. It was painted and photographed in 1947. Here's the cover followed by the painting. This really show's Rockwell's genius: It's topical; it's humorous; and it's filled with clever details which hit the mark. (My favorite person in this painting is the 'grandmother' in the back seat - notice how she's the same going and coming.)
The idea for each painting was conceived by Rockwell. He often created 'studies' which he executed in either charcoals or oils, then re-evaluated and created the final painting. Look at the 'photographs, the 'study' and the 'final' for this cover. This is the same kind of work a 'fine artist' invests in a painting.
Now, see the study. The cop's uniform and pose is chosen, as is the setting, as well as including the soda jerk behind the drug store counter.
Now, in the final painting, there are other differences in the boy's pose, his possessions on the stick, and the soda jerk has morphed into a counter man in a diner.
One large gallery were his 'covers' arranged in chronological order. I picked out several from each decade to give you a flavor of his work. This one was my favorite. It was painted and photographed in 1947. Here's the cover followed by the painting. This really show's Rockwell's genius: It's topical; it's humorous; and it's filled with clever details which hit the mark. (My favorite person in this painting is the 'grandmother' in the back seat - notice how she's the same going and coming.)
In addition to his own paintings, the summer exhibition was a display of painters who influenced Rockwell. Two of these painters were Maxwell Parrish and N.C. Wyeth. I had to laugh when I saw this Parrish painting - it's owned by Crystal Bridges, the Alice Walton museum we toured in Arkansas on our way to New York.
Another piece I really liked was the idea of 'the family tree' - a theme which Rockwell explored in many of his covers. Here's his take on what an American family tree would look like starting with the buccaneer marrying the Spanish princess, splitting into the "North" and the "South" during the Civil War, splitting again in the "East" and "West" post Civil War, and culminating in the ideal child who is modeled on Peter Rockwell, one of Norman Rockwell's sons.
Here's another take on that same theme: This is called "Veterans of Two Wars", a cover for The Red Cross Magazine.
Rockwell definitely saw himself as part of the family tree of artists. He particularly admired any artist who painted real people doing real tasks. One of the other exhibitions of the museum were presentations of artists who built their own art on the foundation of others. First, you saw individual paintings, then a 'family tree' was presented. Here's the one which culminates in Norman Rockwell.
This was a fun day, OK, my idea of a fun day. If you want to see more of Naumkeag, or Norman Rockwell covers, here are the links to ALL the pictures.
