6
"Art on Nantucket" THE OCTOBER, 1982, issue of Antiques Magazine printed the following article by Raymond B. Agler, of the Boston Public Library, concerning this new addition to the literature of Nantucket. ART ON NANTUCKET, The History of Painting on Nan tucket Island, by Robert A. diCurcio, intro. by Stuart P. Feld. xvi + 269 pp., color pis., bibliography, appendixes, in dexes. (Nantucket Historical Association in cooperation with the Nantucket Historical Trust, 2 Union St., Nantucket, MA 02554; $250 plus $5 for postage and handling)
The POLLARD limner's strong, disquieting portrait of Mary Gard ner Coffin of 1717 introduces this history of Nantucket art. In its harsh angularities are caught the sitter's high seriousness and flinty character, typical of the first generation of settlers who chose to eke out a living on those lonely moors. This place and its people have animated the imagination and creativity of numerous artists in the en suing two and a half centuries, though, curiously, with the exception of the Nantucket works of Eastman Johnson, the sumptuous legacy of paintings from Nantucket's past has been accorded slight mention in the literature of American art. It is a large and diverse body of work, long known and loved by the islanders and the summer visitors to Nan tucket's museums and galleries. One of those summer people decided that the artistic heritage of Nantucket deserved a full and careful study. This book is his considerable accomplishment. Financial support for this ambitious project was generously pro vided by the Nantucket Historical Trust. It was decided that profits from the sale of the book would be reserved for a special curatorial fund for cleaning, restoring, and maintaining the rich collections of the Nantucket Historical Association. In the autumn of 1979 Robert diCur cio was provided with a studio, the best photographic equipment, and the good will and encouragement of Nantucketers everywhere. Now, three years of intensive work has produced a result deserving of high praise indeed. This is a lavishly illustrated book which succeeds admirably as a photographic tour through the history of Nantucket painting from the beginning of the eighteenth to the middle of the twentieth century. The criterion for inclusion as a Nantucket artist was simply to have "painted a picture of an identifiable Nantucket subject." The work of some one hundred artists (none living) is illustrated, with an accompa nying succinct, gracefully written narrative. The opening chapter,
