WOODBURY, Charles Herbert
(1864-1940)
Birth place: Lynn, MA
Death place: Jamaica Plain (Boston), MA
Addresses: Boston, MA, 1887-97/Ogunquit, ME
Profession: Marine
painter, etcher, teacher, writer
Studied: Cobbett School,
1875-77; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1882-86 (an engineering
major,
he was largely self-taught, but took informal
watercolor class with Ross S. Turner;
Académie Julian, Paris, with Boulanger
and Lefebvre, 1890-91)
Exhibited: Lynn Art
Exhibition, 1880 (2nd prize); Boston Arts Club, 1882, 1884 (prize), 1895
(prize);
J. Eastman Chase Gallery, Boston, 1887 (first
solo; sold out show);
National Academy of Design, 1887-97,1932 (prize,
1932); 1888 (solo), 1891 and 1896
(both joint
exhibitions with wife Marcia);
Klackner Gallery 1889 (etchings);
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts
Annual, 1890-1938; Pennsylvania
Academy of Fine Arts 1924 (gold);
New Salon, Paris, 1891 (etching) Salons of
the Société
Nationale des Beaux Arts, Paris,
1891; Art Institute of Chicago, 1892-1939;
Paris Salon, 1894 (painting);
Atlanta Expo, 1895 (gold);
Tennessee Centennial, Nashville,
1897 (prize); Mechanics' Fair, Boston (medals);
Paris Expo, 1900 (med);
Pan-American Expo, Buffalo,
1901 (med); Worcester Museum of
Art, 1903 (prize), 1907 (prize); St. Louis Expo, 1904 (med);
Carnegie
Institute, 1905 (prize); Corcoran Gallery biennials,
1907-37 (15 times; including silver medal, 1914);
Buenos Aires Expo, 1910
(medal); American Watercolor Society, 1911 (prize);
W.A. Clark
Prize, 1914; Pan.-Pacific Expo, San Francisco, 1915 (medals); Brooklyn, 1931
(prize); Society of
American Etchers, 1933 (prize);
Vose Gallery, Boston, 1978, 1980; Charles H. Woodbury and His Students,"
Ogunquit Museum of American Art,
1998"
Member: Boston Art Club,
1884 (became the Club's youngest member at the age of 17);
Society of
American Artists, 1899; Associate National Academy of
Design, 1906;
National Academy 1907; Boston Society Watercolor Painters; NY
Watercolor Club;
Boston Gallery Art; Ogunquit Art
Assn.
Work: Boston Museum of
Fine Art; Addison Gallery of American Art; Art Institute of Chicago;
Berkshire Athenaeum; Boston Public Library; Carnegie
Institute; St. Louis Art Museum;
Corcoran Gallery of Art; Danforth Museum of
Art; Detroit Institute of Art;
Fogg Museum of
Art, Harvard; Gardner Museum, Boston;
Herron Art Institute; Joslyn Art
Museum, Omaha; Museum of Modern Art; Carnegie
Institute;
Rhode Island School of Design; Utah Collection; Telfair Academy,
Savannah;
Worcester Museum of Art; Colby
College; Ogunquit Museum American Art; Portland (ME) Museum of Art ;
San
Francisco Museum of Art; Peabody Museum,
Salem; Wellesley College;
Adler Planetarium & Astronomical Museum, Chicago
(six paintings made in Ogunquit
showing the solar eclipse of Aug. 31, 1932)
Comments: A highly
influential teacher of many students, most of whom were women, who flocked
to his
summer classes held at Ogunquit, Maine, from
1898-1934 (teaching hiatus during WWI).
He produced his first etching in
1882, & during his early career was an
illustrator for Century & Harper's,
1888-89. He traveled
extensively in Europe and made at least eighteen trips to the Caribbean
from 1901-39.
He also taught classes at his Boston studio; at Worcester AA
(1895); Wellesley College
(1899-06; 1913-14); and Pine Hill
School (1907-10).
In his teaching and in his own work, he was concerned with
conveying
a true sense of movement, and
instructed his students to paint in verbs,
not in nouns" (quoted in Charles Woodbury and His Students).
His wife Marcia Oakes Woodbury
was also an artist.
Publications: Author, Painting and Personal Equation (1919); Co-author,
with Elizabeth W. Perkins, The
Art of Seeing (1925).
Sources: WW38; Charles
H. Woodbury (exh. cat., Boston: Vose Galleries, 1978). Charles H.
Woodbury and
Marcia Oakes Woodbury (exh. cat., Boston: Vose Galleries, 1980); biography by George M. Young, Force Through Delicacy
(Randall Pub., Portsmouth, NH,
1998); Charles Woodbury and His Students; Falk, Exh. Record
(This biography is drawn from the
"Who Was Who in American Art" , the reference book on the cultural life
Museums:
Addison Gallery of American Art
Chrysler Museum of Art
El Paso Museum of Art
Farnsworth Art Museum
Frederick R Weisman Art Museum
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Mobile Museum of Art
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Rhode Island School of Design-Museum of Art
San Diego Museum of Art
Telfair Museum of Art
The Art Gallery, University of New Hampshire
The Detroit Institute of Arts
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The University of Michigan Museum of Art
Worcester Art Museum
St. Louis Art Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Danforth Museum of Art
Carnegie Institute
Museum of Modern Art
San Francisco Museum of Art
Peabody Museum
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