Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/482452
148 Coupled with natural beauty, it's frequently why people settle in one place over another. Rockport is blessed with both, which explains why it is a lodestone for artists. Once the granite quarries were feasibly mineG oXt anG tKe fisKinJ economy sKiIteG to *OoXcester, tKe YiOOaJe advantageously capitalized on its other asset—beauty—and was fated to become an art colony. ,n , 1oYa 6cotia natiYe *iOEert 7. 0arJeson Zas tKe first artist to open a stXGio in 5ocNport. 'XrinJ tKe first two decades of the 20th century, artists ȵocNeG to tKe seasiGe YiOOaJe in tKe summer months. But if the destiny of Rockport as an art mecca can be at- tributed to any one person, it is Aldro T. Hibbard, a painter from Cape Cod. His friend and fellow artist Charles R. Knapp lured Hibbard from Provincetown to settle in Rockport, arguing that "there are crooked streets here too" and just as many subjects to paint on Cape Ann. 2n Kis first Yisit to 5ocNport, +iEEarG was impressed with its ruggedly hewn beauty, but more importantly, he fore- saw its potential as an art colony. In July 1921, Hibbard arranged the first exKiEit oI proIessionaO artists' works. That same year, at his Main Street studio, he convened about 50 artists to discuss a possible alliance. The result: the Rockport Art Association and Art Week in August, which showcases works exclusively by Rockport artists. A costume ball in Town Hall and other forms of entertainment were added "to make the season one to be re- memEereG, anG a fittinJ commencement Ior simiOar annXaO art sessions in Rockport," according to Hibbard. Resident artists were few in number, but as word spread about Rock- port's picturesque charm and creative community, more artists gravitat- ed to Cape Ann to savor—and utilize—the light, which is often compared to tKe OiJKt in $rOes, France, ZKere 9incent Yan *oJK OiYeG Ior a sKort time and produced 300 paintings. As a promontory surrounded by the Atlantic on three sides, Cape Ann lends its own artist-ready subjects, luring masters like Winslow Homer and Childe Hassam. William Lester Stevens was 5ocNport's first natiYe-Eorn painter to gain prominence. Like Hibbard, he was trained at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. He was a member of the execu- tive committee of the association's Rockport Front Beach 13" x 15" oil on board by Aldro T. Hibbard Favorable topography often charts human destiny.