Window on the Marsh celebrates paintings, photographs capturing Great Marsh’s distinct beauty

Stretching across 25,000 acres of vast salt marsh, barrier beaches, and tidal rivers on Massachusetts’ North Shore is the Great Marsh, a natural wonder that has captivated many artists over the years. Window on the Marsh is a new exhibition at the Cape Ann Museum that features two works of the marsh by each of the renowned painters Martin Johnson Heade and Fitz Henry Lane is accompanied by four photographs by the turn of the century artist, Martha Hale Harvey. The show opens March 19 and runs through Sept. 27, 2022.

For nearly 45 years, Heade (1819-1904), one of America’s most prolific and well-known painters in the 19th century, focused his artistic talents on capturing the Great Marsh’s distinct beauty. Two paintings from that series, Sunny Day on the Marsh (Newburyport Meadows) (c. 1871-75) and Sunset on the Marshes (1867), both on loan from a private collector, will be on display for the exhibition, showcasing Heade’s ability to capture the changing light of a day and amid storms off the Atlantic Ocean.

Fitz Henry Lane (1804-1865) is known as a marine painter, but two of his most successful works are marsh views on Cape Ann: Babson and Ellery Houses, Gloucester, and The Babson Meadows of Riverdale, both done in 1863. For generations, the Babson homestead in Gloucester was one of a handful of saltwater farms on Cape Ann, and the paintings showcase Lane’s exceptional skill at painting seascapes as well as landscapes. These two paintings will also be part of the exhibit.

Martha Hale Harvey (1863-1949) was one of Cape Ann’s earliest and accomplished female photographers. She worked with plate glass negatives, making images of people, Gloucester’s working waterfront, and coastal areas around her home in Annisquam, and most notably of the Great Marsh.

Working with Harvey’s original 4x5” glass plate negatives of marshes along the Annisquam River and at Wingaersheek Beach, contemporary award-winning photographer Anne Rearick created prints of Harvey’s work in her darkroom. Based in Gloucester, Rearick is a professional photographer and teacher who is also Guggenheim fellowship recipient. Four of Harvey’s photographs as reproduced by Rearick will be part of the Window on the Marsh exhibit.

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