Every Picture Tells a Story

by NANCY CARLISLE, Senior Curator of Collections and PETER TRIPPI, Editor in Chief, Fine Art Connoisseur and independent scholar

This issue is dedicated to our new exhibition, Artful Stories: Paintings from Historic New England, which debuts at the Eustis Estate in Milton, Massachusetts, in October and runs through autumn 2021. Historic New England is known by its members for many things, though we dare say few would include its paintings on a Top Ten list. At most of the properties, visitors see the paintings that adorn the walls, yet relatively little attention is paid to them because there is so much else to see.

Two-and-a-half years ago, we started looking closely at Historic New England’s paintings—those hanging in house museums and those in storage at the regional office in Haverhill, Massachusetts. The result of our research is Artful Stories: Paintings from Historic New England. Featuring forty-six paintings created between the 1730s and today, this show reflects what it is about New England—its architecture, landscapes, townscapes, and people—that imbues the region with its unique sense of place.

We hope you will enjoy viewing the exhibition at the Eustis Estate and before then, you are warmly invited to take a deeper dive into some of the paintings’ backstories by visiting eustis.estate/location/artfulstories/. There you will find enlargeable photographs of every artwork as well as comparative images and lively video and audio clips.

The exhibition and the website provide two opportunities to share our research, while this issue of the magazine offers complementary perspectives by an array of specialists who explore what else is noteworthy about Historic New England’s paintings. Dedicating an issue of the magazine to one topic is rare, but we hope you’ll agree that the variety of insights here—not to mention the beauty of the paintings—justify the exception.

We are especially proud that several paintings in Artful Stories will be revelations not only to the public, but also to international experts who have spent decades studying those particular artists. Because Historic New England has not generally called attention to its fine art collections, some of its masterworks have been overlooked by colleagues more familiar with the collections of the region’s many art museums. We are also delighted that conservators have played such a crucial role in this project from its outset. All of the paintings as well as their frames have been treated or stabilized to look their best, and we are particularly grateful to our consulting paintings conservator Lisa Mehlin for her fascinating article here.

Beyond their visual charms, the paintings in Artful Stories offer compelling insights into what has made New England the distinctive place it is. As they say, every picture tells a story. During the imaginative programs to be offered at the Eustis Estate during the exhibition’s run, we eagerly look forward to learning what these pictures mean to you.

Historic New England gratefully acknowledges the support of the following donors in presenting Artful Stories: Dr. Janina A. Longtine along with Jeffrey P. Beale, The Felicia Fund, Jack Haley and Anne Rogers Haley, Robert and Elizabeth Owens, Mrs. George Putnam, Kristin and Roger Servison, Robert Bayard Severy, and Angie and Bob Simonds.

Mary Elizabeth Cutting Buckingham, Mabel Stuart (1867–1939). Wayland, Massachusetts, 1890–1896, oil on canvas, 22½ x 18½ inches. Gift of Edwin Buckingham Sears.