Trail Site #10 : Gallery-on-the-Wharf, 73 Rocky Neck Avenue
DIRECTIONS: Continue walking north on Rocky Neck Avenue to 73 Rocky Neck Avenue, currently the location of the Rudder Restaurant.
The loft at 73 Rocky Neck Avenue was first used as a space for making art when Swedish-born impressionist marine painter Oscar Anderson (1873 – 1953) established a studio on the second floor sometime after his 1908 arrival on Cape Ann. Subsequently, perhaps in advance of—more likely in response to—the opening in 1916 of the invitation-only “Gallery-on-the-Moors” by wealthy art patrons William and Emmeline Atwood, Anderson converted his studio to show and sell work of his own and of other local artists, calling the space “Gallery-on-the-Wharf.” In contrast to its physically imposing, Gothic shrine-like rival on the moors overlooking Rocky Neck, Anderson’s far more humble Gallery-on-the-Wharf adhered to the “No Jury—No Prizes” ethos adopted by the anti-elitist Gloucester Society of Artists, of which Anderson was a founder and officer. Its exhibitions open to resident artists across Cape Ann, Augustus Buhler, and Lester Stevens also showed here.
During the 1920s, the Metropolitan Art School resided here. Rocky Neck was then summer home to a number of artists whose reputations as master teachers attracted scores of artists to take seasonal classes. Notable among the instructors were H.H. Breckenridge at 49 Rocky Neck Avenue and Stuart Davis who, along with Theresa Bernstein and William Meyerowitz, gave ‘private instruction’ at homes on Mt. Pleasant Avenue.
From 1935 until 1962, this site housed paintings, lithographs, and etchings of marine illustrator and painter Gordon Hope Grant (1875-1962). Grant’s wide travels and ocean-going experiences informed his lifelong focus on a broad range of maritime themes.
