THANKS TIME
Every year when the caloric splendors of Thanksgiving Day are rolled by me, I think of an artist whom I have trouble even remembering at other times of the year. His name was George Henry Boughton, a man born “near Norwich, in Norfolk County, England” in 1836. He has always been, to me, the world's prime painter of Pilgrims.
George Henry was, probably one of those unfortunate children named after both father and father-in-law or after both grandfathers. He is never spoken of a either “George” or “Henry” but always as a two some. Picturing him, as a kid, and being from “near” the fine old city of Norwich, I looked at his paintings for years trying in vain to find some landscape reminders from that area - Wroxham Broads, perhaps, old Elm Street Hill, or Mousehold Heath, perhaps. Nothing. I found out later it was because when his family left near-Norwich, GH has attained to the age of two years. We have to say, that he was “brought up” at their new home in Albany, New York.
Until he was seventeen he was not an artist, although he did pen-and-ink drawings and other sketches frequently. He was destined to be a “business man”, but one fine summer day in that seventeen year when he was at a store buying some new fish hooks, he noticed a set of oil paints in colorful tubes. He bought that set instead of the fish hooks; found an old piece of used canvas and became a widely exhibited artist painting landscapes, Pilgrims, historic sites, pilgrims,peasant folks all over and more pilgrims. His work is widely respected and admired for its “simplicity, tenderness and subdued, but not weak, coloring.”
His most common picture of American pilgrim settlers of l620-plus phase is that called ”Pilgrims Going to Church”, owned by the New York Public Library. In it you see a group of men, women and children, walking - strung out loosely - through a small clearing on the edge of a forest. Two armed men are at the front of the line, women and children in the center and two armed men at the rear - plus a tailgater lagging perhaps fifty yards behind the group as a flank guard, a late member or the first of another such church-bound set of Plymouth Colony settlers. As an indication of his strong leaning toward doing pilgrims, other paintings include such titles as “Return of the Mayflower”, “The Scarlet Letter, “Priscilla and John Alden” and 'Going Home From Church” and “Pilgrim Exiles.” After selling some of his paintings at that l7-years mark, Broughton went to London to study art but stayed only a few months. He returned to New York City and opened a studio. He exhibited works in both New York and London. In 1861 he removed again to London - this time to make it his permanent home.
George Henry Boughton was a busy man. In addition to his paintings, his detailed knowledge of peasant and pilgrim life; details of their group and personal life-styles and an awareness of their simplicity, and self-governing strictness made him a perfect artist to illustrate special editions of “Knickerbocker's History of New York” an of “Rip Van Winkle”. An odd note appears in some articles about the special talents of a rather staid Boughton. He is widely respected and admired among fellow artists, it seems, as having been especially successful in painting female figures.
This year,when you see a copy of “Pilgrims Going To Church” in your favorite paper, magazine, or book; as the November page on your calender or on TV, think of seventeen year old George Henry Boughton as he decided to pass up a box of much-needed fish hooks in favor of a few tubes of oil paints. That decision change his world – and ours.
A. L. M. November 10, 2004 [c653wds]
