Local artist on display at Noyes Museum

Noted painter Nicholson lived in Hammonton

Courtesy of the Alfred O. Deshong Collection, Widner University Art Gallery & Collection and the Noyes Museum
George Washington Nicholson’s “A Moorish Bazaar Portal”

Courtesy of the Noyes Museum
Nicholson’s “Scavanging a Wreck.”

by Gabe Donio, Gazette Staff Writer
 

The Noyes Museum of Art and The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey present the exhibition From Cape May to Cairo: The Work of George Washington Nicholson opening April 22 and continuing through November 9, 2008 at the Noyes Museum in Oceanville. The exhibition, a collaborative effort between the museum and the college’s associate art history professor Kate Ogden, presents the first comprehensive retrospective of George Washington Nicholson’s work ever assembled.
“Kate Ogden started digging into him because she lives in Hammonton. Then we became involved in having an exhibition of his work, a retrospective. It’s never been done before,” Communications/Development Director of The Noyes Museum Karen DeRosa said.
Students from Stockton College have been involved with researching Nicholson and will help install the show.
“It will be a learning experience for them,” DeRosa said.
Known as a landscape painter, Nicholson (1832-1912) lived and worked in New Jersey and Philadelphia during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His work represents the type of academic realism popular in America and Europe during the turn of the century. This exhibition includes seascapes, New Jersey marsh paintings as well as Orientalist subjects and landscapes.
“What I found interesting is that he was so well-traveled. You see a lot of what they call Orientalist themes, and a lot of figures in his paintings,” DeRosa said.
He was born in Salem County in 1832, a descendant of Samuel Nicholson, an original Salem County settler, who came to America from England in the 1670s as part of John Fenwick’s Quaker colony. The historic Nicholson House built in 1722 by Samuel Nicholson’s son Abel is still one of the most important early brick houses in Salem today.
After leaving Salem, George Nicholson was a student and then a professional member of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. He traveled abroad in 1866, visiting England and France and studying art with the French artist Eugene Isabey (1803-1886). One of his earliest paintings, titled “Coast of Algiers” is dated 1866. Another, a study from nature titled “Looking Towards Windsor Coast” was exhibited in 1867, after the artist returned to Philadelphia. Although he spent much of his professional life in Philadelphia, he continued to visit New Jersey and paint the marshes and shore. Around 1902, the artist retired to Hammonton, where he lived until his death in 1912.
DeRosa said Hammontonians should be proud of Nicholson’s contribution to the art world.
“Not only is it their local history, but this puts Hammonton on the map in the art world. Here is what some might consider ‘sleepy’ Hammonton with an artist who traveled the world and made it as an artist. This is something that young people from Hammonton who are interested in art should see. It makes you feel, ‘If he could do it, so can I,’” DeRosa said.
Nicholson’s subjects were primarily landscapes. They often include figures and scenes of everyday life among the working classes, including an impressive number of boats and coastal landscapes. Some of his landscapes can be easily identified as realistic depictions of local sites. Many others show European influence and may have been painted abroad or based on sketches made during his travels. An interesting subset of Nicholson’s work focuses on exotic Middle Eastern and North African subjects. One of the most spectacular paintings in the exhibition, titled “Moorish Bazaar Portal” depicts a group of robed Middle Eastern figures clustered under a large horseshoe arch.
“The colors on some of them are so vibrant. It’s amazing the colors have stayed after all these years. Some of the pieces are absolutely amazing,” DeRosa said.
The exhibition features 54 pieces from public and private collections. The most comprehensive group of 20 paintings is on loan from the Widener University Art Gallery, which obtained the Nicholson works from the Alfred O. Deshong estate. Other paintings in the exhibition are on loan from private collections including the families and friends of Philadelphia jeweler Joseph K. Davison and Hammonton doctor Godfrey Miles Crowell, who often received payment for services from Nicholson in the form of paintings. The artist so freely gave his paintings away, that Ogden believes there are many more in private collections throughout southern New Jersey.
DeRosa said the museum is looking forward to the Nicholson exhibition, mainly because it is the first of its kind anywhere.
“It’s wonderful. How many times do you get to be the first? There’s about 60 pieces that have come from about 30 different collectors. They have come together for the greater good of the exhibition. We’re excited to put it on,” DeRosa said.
Gazette Editor-in-Chief Gina Rullo said the newspaper wanted to be a part of the exhibition, because of the artist’s connection to the town. The Gazette is one of the reception sponsors.
“We’re proud to be a major sponsor of this historic Nicholson exhibition. It’s an honor to see an artist with ties to Hammonton receive such attention. The Noyes Museum and Stockton College have worked together to put on an excellent exhibition, along with everyone who donated from their collections to help make the retrospective possible,” Rullo said.
The Noyes Museum of Art was founded in 1983 to collect, preserve and exhibit American fine art, crafts and folk art with an emphasis on New Jersey artists and folk art forms, reflecting the area’s long traditions, history, landscape and culture. General funding for The Noyes Museum of Art is provided by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a state partner of the National Endowment for the Arts; the Mr. and Mrs. Fred Winslow Noyes Foundation; the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and the Odessa F. and Henry D. Kahrs Foundation. The Museum is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. and closed on Mondays and major holidays.
The Noyes Museum of Art is located one and a half miles south of Historic Smithville Village, off Route 9, on Lily Lake Road in Oceanville, New Jersey. Admission fees are $4 for adults and $3 for seniors and students. For more information, please call 652-8848 or visit www.noyesmuseum.org.