Maine Antique Digest April 2015

16-C Maine Antique Digest, April 2015

- feature -

bank notes, stocks, and bonds.

Plumb

started as an office boy, and his artistic

and personal merits were quickly recog-

nized, He was promoted to staff artist.

After Hatch’s death, Plumb moved on

to work for John H. Bufford, the fore-

most commercial lithographer in Boston,

where Winslow Homer had worked in the

1850s. The collection includes Plumb’s

apprenticeship agreement with Hatch

as well as several letters written home

on Hatch letterhead. Accompanying the

documents are three bank note vignettes,

rendered beautifully in pen and ink and

watercolor. The collection includes scores

of drawings of different dates, sizes, and

themes. Taken together, they prove that

Plumb was a highly skilled draftsman

with a remarkable ability for depicting

large groups of people in action and ren-

dering landscape perspective.

During his years with Hatch, Plumb

attended night school at Cooper Union

for four years and the National Academy

of Design for two years. The archival por-

tion of the collection includes a completion

certificate for the course at Cooper Union,

signed by Peter Cooper. With one excep-

tion, Plumb achieved the highest level of

merit. After returning to New York City

from Europe, Plumb joined the faculty at

Cooper Union, teaching freehand drawing

there for more than 30 years. A medal still

in its velvet-lined box, presented to the

artist by Peter Cooper’s daughter Sarah

Hewitt for his many faithful years of ser-

vice, is another treasure.

Other noteworthy archival material

includes photographs of the artist and

his family, several of them housed in an

album covered in crushed velvet. The

album also preserves an autographed

carte de visite for Jean-Léon Gérôme.

A separately framed oval photograph

presents the dashing young artist in a top

hat, standing on a bridge in Central Park.

Plumb’s business cards and the matching

print plates are part of the collection, as

are his studio sign, watercolor box, oil

paint box, palette, toolbox, and a small

leather trunk with his initials in brass

tacks.

My goal for this remarkable collec-

tion is to organize a scholarly exhibition,

accompanied by a catalog. I aim to bring

Henry Grant Plumb’s art and letters to the

attention of historians and art apprecia-

tors. Because of the many letters that need

transcription and the research required

to reconstruct Plumb’s life and career,

this will be a multiyear project. Thanks

to luck and good connections, I already

have a verbal commitment from the Sal-

magundi Club to host my Plumb exhibi-

tion.

I hope for two other venues, at least

one in upstate New York near the artist’s

home town.

As a hybrid scholar-dealer, I

plan to sell a number of the drawings and

paintings but will ultimately donate a sig-

nificant portion of the material to public

institutions, where it will be available for

consultation and enjoyment by the public.

Stay tuned for much more about Henry

Grant Plumb. Who knows, perhaps down

the road

M.A.D.

will even publish a notice

of my Plumb exhibition.

Untitled, oil on canvas, 9½" x 8", 1874-78.

Untitled, watercolor on paper, 1880s, 8" x 12", sight.

Park Luxembourg,

Paris,

1874-78, watercolor on

paper, 10" x 14".

Lake Champlain from Basin Harbor

, 1910-20, oil on artist’s board,

9¼" x 12¼".

Pickaninny

, circa 1884, oil on canvas, 10" x 12".

Pickaninny

, engraving, 1884, 8½" x 11½".

Preparing the Punch: Latin Quarter Sketch Club

1875, watercolor on paper, 10" x 13½", sight.

Vignette for a bank note or certificate, 1860s, watercolor on paper, 3 7/8" x 5 5/8".