Virginia Lowell (dates unknown), Coat of arms (John Paul Jones). America, early 20th century. Ink, watercolors, on paper; H. 13 1/2 in., W. 10 1/2 in. framed; H. 12 3/4 in., W. 9 3/4 in. (sight). Portsmouth Historical Society (acc. no. 100).
This coat of arms was copied by Virginial Lowell from an image on file at the Masonic Library in Boston. A coat of arms was meant to tell the history and achievements of a family with images and symbols. John Paul Jones’ arms, therefore, have a lot of military and nautical symbols. The animals that look like furry fish on either side of the shield are supposed to be dolphins! Apparently, the original artist had never seen one, and this sea monster was the result!
Draw your own coat of arms, and tell us about the symbols. Or maybe create a sea monster!
Despite challenging times, Portsmouth Historical Society has exciting plans for this summer!
Although we have rescheduled “Twilight of American Impressionism,” and “Don Gorvett: Working Waterfronts” for the 2021 summer season, please check back soon for details about some alternative virtual programs and a major community-wide project that will help see us through the unusual days ahead.
We hope to open our doors by early July, but due to our concern for the health and safety of our guests, we are delaying our planned spring opening of the John Paul Jones House, Discover Portsmouth Welcome Center, and Portsmouth Academy Gallery until a date that will be determined later.
Stuck inside? So are we! So we’re starting a Family Art Challenge at the Portsmouth Historical Society. We’ll be posting some pictures, some coloring pages, and suggestions for creating artwork. We encourage all ages to participate, just post in a comment or use the #PHSFamilyArtChallenge tag.
Challenge #1: Milliner’s Box
This box is probably from a milliner’s shop in about 1900. A milliner is a hat maker, and in 1900, everyone had a hat on when they went out. You just weren’t fully dressed without one; it would be like walking around town barefoot!
Color in this fancy lady in her big hat and let us see your creation!
In times of crisis we come together. Current safety measures now prevent us from doing so in person. This new reality is leaning in on us; its shadow leaving area arts and cultural organizations, and many others around the world, dark.
In the spirit of collaboration, we, the Portsmouth area arts nonprofits, make this united call to action to ensure that our community’s cherished cultural organizations survive the impact of COVID-19.
We are in immediate financial danger. Every sale and contribution matters. Even a three-month closure is devastating for individual artists, staff, and the local businesses that benefit from their audiences – like restaurants, hotels and shops. Some of our venues could be forced to close their doors forever. We are coming together now to ask you, our community, to support us at this critical time.
We are, as Roald Dahl says, the music-makers and we are the dreamers of dreams – artists, event organizers, fans, supporters and students. We share a deep philosophical belief in the communal power of art and the overall power of community and reach out today to channel that power.
The arts and culture of this region are more than a pastime. They are a powerful economic force. In the three-month timeframe ahead of us, the signers below estimate this collective impact: $700,000 reaching individual artists, 200,000 audience members served, and 250 local individuals employed, 85 at full-time levels.
As important as economic impact, if not more, the Seacoast’s arts community is part and parcel of who we are. It helps define us and unite us. The arts bring priceless beauty, wonder, inspiration and insight to our neighborhoods and into the minds and hearts of their patrons. They spark the flames countless community members rally around for warmth and company.
We all know the mantra, “The show must go on.” In the arts world, that’s equally true on both sides of the curtain. It will take the entire community – from both sides of the curtain – to ensure our lush and robust culture, an emblem of our region, continues on.
We recognize that this is a challenging time for everyone. Like other community businesses, area arts and cultural organizations face an existential crisis posed by indeterminate closures, the length of which will be decided by the fortitude of a virus. The threat we face stems not only from the loss of ticket, concession, merchandise, membership and season pass revenue, but from an almost-certain impending pull-back on philanthropy. Generosity from you, as members of the business community and as individuals, is what keeps the arts accessible. Advocates, enthusiasts and philanthropists are invited to please join us, share this message, and contribute as you can.
Things are moving quickly. Please know we acknowledge the efforts and contributions of all area arts nonprofits and invite them to join us and share this message, too.
We already profoundly miss the opportunity to gather together and connect over art, and we are dedicated to ensuring that opportunity awaits us on the other side of COVID-19.
May music and art bring you peace of mind at this challenging moment in time.
RESCHEDULED: Spring/Summer 2021 Balcony Gallery at the Portsmouth Historical Society
A Massachusetts native, Don was born in Boston in 1949 and spent
his youth in Cambridge and Somerville, Massachusetts. He loved the seashore
where he swam and fished, and learned about New England’s seafaring
industry. When his family moved to Burlington, Massachusetts, Gorvett’s high
school art instructor Elinor Marvin recognized the talent of her young student
and privately tutored him. His exceptional art education focused on drawing,
graphic arts, and especially theatrical set design.
After high school, Gorvett met a benefactor who generously supplied
the young artist with a one-room cabin, just off Berwick Road in Ogunquit,
Maine. From this summer studio, which Gorvett occupied from 1968 to 1984, he would
bike to the ocean daily with his paints, French easel, and canvases.
Don Gorvett, Memorial Bridge, 1995. Reduction Woodcut. Collection of Piscataqua Savings Bank.
As a high school senior, Gorvett won the Ford Junior Fellowship to
the School of the Museum Fine Arts.
There, Gorvett spent much time sketching and painting along Boston’s
working waterfront, the start of his lifetime fascination with the commercial
and industrial lifelines at the water’s edge.
After graduation, Gorvett moved to a theatre on the grounds of Stillington
Hall, a large Jacobean estate in Gloucester, on Boston’s North Shore, owned by heiress
Mary Buswell. Gorvett took up residence in its well-furnished dressing rooms
and used the stage for his first etching press. There he produced a series of
large-scale woodcuts based on Richard Wagner’s operatic tetralogy “The Ring of
the Nibelung.” He also created a series
of drypoint etchings of the Gloucester waterfront and began to explore
possibilities of large-scale woodcuts.
Don Gorvett, Sea Fox on an Evening Tide, 2018. Reduction woodcut. Private collection.
In 1990, Don Gorvett returned to Ogunquit, Maine, where he reunited
with his former teacher Elinor Marvin, caring for her until her death in 2015 at
age 100. In Ogunquit, Gorvett further explored the technique of reduction
woodcuts depicting that and other harbors. Then Gorvett moved his gallery and
studio to the still-active working waterfront of Portsmouth, N.H. With his
chosen medium of reduction woodcut, Gorvett marries the maritime rusticity of
seaside communities with the abstract geometric shapes and configurations of
the region’s coastal architecture.
A true, full-time working artist, Gorvett can be found in his
small studio and gallery on Market Street in historic downtown Portsmouth year
round. His work has been shown regularly since 1988 in more than a dozen public
exhibitions at colleges, commercial galleries, and museums locally and as far
away as West Germany and Hanoi.
Don Gorvett, Woodbury Studio from the Marginal Way, 1995. Reduction woodcut. Private collection.
