Charles Hawthorne, Provincetown

"The Girl in White" by Charles Hawthorne

"Probably Charles Hawthorne, more than any other one person, was responsible for the growth of Provincetown as an art center because of the success and popularity of the school. Originally attracted to its classes, many of the students have kept their close connection with the town even after becoming established painters in their own right.

In his "Notes" are many references to the part played by hard work in the development of a painter. No one ever practiced better what he preached, for he was always at work in his studio by eight o'clock, and the volume of work he produced was impressive. With all this he was a warm and enthusiastic companion because of his ability to enjoy life. He loved people, and convivial occasions were numerous in the household.

There were an amazing number of scholarships at the Cape Cod School of Art. Certainly the talent that assembled there each summer - sometimes only through extraordinary hardships - deserved them. Besides providing this large number of scholarships at his own school, he was instrumental in helping talented students in other schools, and also did such things as get up a purse to start off a gifted young African-American painter in Europe, since he would have no opportunity on this side of the Atlantic. To me, as his son, it is most heart-warming to discover, when I meet his former students, with what esteem and affection they still hold him."

To be continued

(Excerpted from "Hawthorne on Painting" by Charles Webster Hawthorne.)

Charles Hawthorne, Student

"A Study in White" by Charles Hawthorne

Charles Hawthorne's son Joseph wrote: "My father started to study with William Merritt Chase at his Shinnecock summer school in 1896, and became his assistant the next year. I believe that it was as students there that my mother and father met. On the same Chase school literature that showed my father listed as assistant, the name of Miss Ethel M. Campbell (the future Mrs. Hawthorne) appeared as corresponding secretary. 

There at Shinnecock he lived in a shack on the beach where fishermen stowed their gear. Thirty years later we received a pheasant at Christmas from one of those fishermen, turned gamekeeper, who had seen an announcement of a national prize won by my father. This is one example of his ability to make friends. His acquaintance covered a tremendous range of diverse personalities.

His fascination with the sea and the people who worked and lived by it led him to Holland in 1898. Thenext year he went to Provincetown. There he found not only an unspoiled fishing village with spectacular contrasts of sand, sea and sky, but also a clarity of atmosphere and a unique quality of light."

To be continued

(Excerpts are from "Hawthorne on Painting" by Charles Webster Hawthorne.)

Charles W. Hawthorne, Humble Beginnings

"Refining Oil" by Charles W. Hawthorne

"Charles W. Hawthorne, was the son of a sea captain, and grew up in the seaport town of Richmond, Maine. Money was scarce during his boyhood there. He put in long hours cutting ice in the river but he seemed always to have known that he wanted to become a painter.

He went to New York in 1890 at the age of eighteen, worked days in a stained glass factory and studied at night at the Art Students League. George de Forest Brush and Frank Vincent Dumond were his early teachers.

To illustrate how precarious existence was for him in those days, he told of having been notified of an award which was to be given him at a formal reception. To his dismay he realized that he had no presentable shirt. Lacking funds to buy one, he ingeniously used quick-drying china white paint to cover his cuffs and shirt front. Thus attired, he claimed his prize with aplomb."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Hawthorne on Painting" by Charles Webster Hawthorne.) 

Mariano Fortuny, Gone Too Soon

"Hollyhocks" by Mariano Fortuny

"Mariano Fortuny left Portici on the 1st of November, and arrived at Rome on the 6th. The day after he took his pen to give us news of himself. A few days after, the 14th, he felt unwell and soon went to bed.

It was thought his indisposition was but a slight one, and he himself did not suspect the gravity of his case. He made, without leaving his bed, some pen drawings, particularly some after the casts of Beethoven. His illness was, however, very serious. It was the return of an attack of pernicious fever, from the ill effect of which he had already suffered in 1869, and which, was complicated by ulceration of the stomach.

However, the physicians did not yet despair, but unhappily the disease rapidly grew worse, notwithstanding large doses of quinine, and Fortuny died on the 21st of November, 1874, at six o'clock in the evening. The news of the death of the great artist was as a thunderbolt in the city.

He was so beloved that no one could believe in such a loss. It was a general mourning. All contended for the sad honor of bearing the coffin to the church of Santa Maria del Popolo, and thence to the cemetery of San Lorenzo Fuori. The Syndic of Rome, the Spanish Ambassador, the Director of the Academy of France, and the Director of the Academy of Naples, were selected for pall bearers.

Many artists, and I speak of those who hold the first rank, share their appreciation, and, doubtless, posterity will confirm the judgment they have given of one of the most extraordinary painters that ever lived."

 Excerpted from "Life of Fortuny with His Works and Correspondence" by Charles Davillier, 1885.

Mariano Fortuny, The Beach at Portici

"Beach at Portici" by Mariano Fortuny

"To the Baron Davillier from Mariano Fortuny:

'My Dear Friend, I regret much to learn that you have been suffering, and that I have not been in Paris to keep you company. I could at least distract you by prattling about old curiosities. On the subject of my works, I will speak only of my picture which is 1 metre, 37 centimetres long by 0m 72 high. There are women on the grass, bathers who are taking headers into the waves, the ruins of an old castle, the walls of a garden, the entrance into a village, etc., etc. All that in bright sunlight, not a single ray omitted. Everything is fair and gay, and how could it be otherwise, since we have so happily passed our summer. My picture is not yet finished. It wants a month's work yet.

I have commenced another, a smaller one with portraits of my two children, and besides a number of detached sketches, as well as two aquarelles - one tolerable, the other bad. I have in view several other things. As to business matters, my prospects look well. I am already offered 75,000 francs for the picture of 'The Beach at Portici.' There are two bidders. One of them is here from Paris, and the other has written to me [from America].'"

Recently Fortuny's "Beach at Portici" was acquired by the Meadows Museum in Dallas on January 19, 2018, which gives the picture's history after the artist's death. "In the artist's possession at the time of his death, 'Beach at Portici' was acquired by the prominent New York collector Alexander Turney Stewart in 1875, and remained with Stewart's heirs on the East Coast until the Meadows acquired it. From June 24 through September 23, it is the subject of a focused exhibition, "At the Beach: Mariano Fortuny y Marsal and William Merritt Chase,' where it will be paired with Chase's 'Idle Hours.' Chase knew Fortuny's work well and greatly admired it." 

To be continued

(Excerpted from "Life of Fortuny with His Works and Correspondence" by Charles Davillier, 1885.)

Mariano Fortuny in London

"The Rare Vase" by Mariano Fortuny

"Mariano Fortuny had invited Charles Davillier, the author of this book, to spend a week in London with him. Davillier wrote of the trip: "Our time was to be devoted to monuments, museums, and studies of fashion. A happy chance meeting led to a visit with Millais, who received his young brother in art with the liveliest sympathy and with that frankness which is one of the bright sides of the English character. The celebrated painter, even exacted from us the promise of another visit for the year following - which much pleased Fortuny. He also wished to see two painters he had known at Rome, Alma Tadema and Leighton, but unfortunately they were not at home.

Fortuny had almost constantly, according to his habit, his pencil in his hand. We went to the British Museum, South Kensington, the Tower and the Indian Museum. He found many things that interested him much, especially arms and armor and he also quickly filled his album. The Zoological Garden so much interested Fortuny that we passed a whole day there where he found many subjects for studies and made a delicious sketch of a group of babies, fresh and rosy, mounted on a huge elephant. He purposed later to make a picture of it.

After having passed part of an evening at the theatre, we retired to our little chamber with two beds, exhausted with fatigue, which did not prevent our talking until late in the night. He made me the confidant of his dreams for the future. He spoke of putting himself safe above want of the absolute necessities of life, and to make for himself an independence that would allow him to paint what he would, as he understood it. He had a true passion for the 15th century, all the beauty of which he fully comprehended and intended thereafter to attack subjects belonging to this interesting epoch. He particularly spoke to me of a Borgian supper and other scenes, borrowed from the time of the Italian Renaissance.

Fortuny was delighted with his trip to London, one which we would renew the following year. Some days later he started to return to Rome, and I accompanied him as far as the Lyons depot, together with his brother-in-law, Raymundo, and we embraced him just as the train was starting, far from thinking we should never again see a friend we loved so much."

To be continued

(Excerpted from "Life of Fortuny with His Works and Correspondence" by Charles Davillier, 1885.) 

Mariano Fortuny Never Exhibited

"Antiquaries" by Mariano Fortuny

"It is known that Fortuny never exhibited. The true reason which kept him from exhibiting was his natural modesty, increased by the dread of notoriety. Theophile Gautier, poet, writer, and art and literary critic, explained: 'If exhibited at the Salon, as we hoped they would have been, his paintings and watercolors would have made for him in the course of a few days a popular reputation, but the young painter, very wrongly we think, did not wish to venture into this great crowd of paintings, not from pride but from true modesty, and the nervous sensitiveness of an artist that would be embarrassed with the thought that during the whole period of the exhibition he, through his works, would be liable to the contradictory judgments of the crowd.'

Fortuny has had the happiness, so rare today, of freely blooming in a mysterious half light, distant from circles where criticism flourishes. No advice, however good, affected his first inspiration. He painted what pleased him, and not having behind an eye armed as with a magnifying glass or spectacles, which curiously watches the growing work and finds fault with it, even before it is finished.

The thought of making a sensation at the exhibition, the torment of young painters, never occupied his mind, and he never troubled himself to learn what was the style of the day, or what kind of subject was in fashion. In fact, it was many others who copied Fortuny's style."

To be continued

(Excerpted from "Life of Fortuny with His Works and Correspondence" by Charles Davillier, 1885.)