Gay Head / Aquinnah
on Martha's Vineyard Island
as Seen by Artists from 1894 to 2020
Presented Chronologically...
From 1870 to 1997 it was named Gay Head, a descriptive name referring to the brilliant colors of the clay cliffs, when the town was incorporated in 1870. In 1965 the Gay Head Cliffs were designated as a National Natural Landmark by the National Park Service. In 1997, by popular vote of 79 to 21, the town changed its name to Aquinnah, Wampanoag for "land under the hill." The Aquinnah area is native to the Wampanoag people, who make up about one-third of the town's 400-450 population and is one of two federally recognized tribes of Wampanoag people in Massachusetts. The native people gained federal recognition as the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head in 1987 and controls sovereign tribal lands within the town boundaries. At the foot of the cliffs is Moshup's Beach, named after an Aquinnah Wampanoag.
Gay Head
Nelson Augustus Moore (1824-1902), American
Oil, 1894
Nelson Augustus Moore was born in Kensington, Connecticut, in 1824 and studied portrait painting in New York City 1847 and 1850. He returned to Connecticut in the fall of 1850 and taught drawing at the New Britain Normal School for several years. During this period Moore also learned photography and in 1854 he opened his own successful daguerreotype business in Hartford. He painted landscapes of Connecticut, especially Hartford and his native Kensington, throughout his life.
Despite the interesting and sometimes famous sitters that graced his daguerreotype studio for the next decade, Moore longed to resume his painting full-time, and finally did so around 1864, leaving the shop to his brother and partner Roswell. His daughter Ellen and his son Edwin Augustus Moore also became painters. His great great grandson, Andrew Moore, is a painter today on Martha's Vineyard.
Gay Head, Martha's Vineyard
Arthur Wesley Dow (1857-1922), American
Oil on canvas , 25" x 20" (w x h), 1913
Arthur Wesley Dow was an American painter, printmaker, photographer and arts educator. He first studied art with various artists in his home state of Massachusetts. In 1884 he went to Paris to studying at the Académie Julian. In 1893, Dow was appointed assistant curator of the Japanese collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston where the woodblock prints of Japan which greatly influenced his later works. In 1895 he designed the poster to advertise the Journal of Modern Art.
Dow taught art at a few major American arts training institutions, beginning with the Pratt Institute from 1896 to 1903. He taught at the New York Art Students League, from 1898 to 1903. In 1900, Dow founded and served as the director of the Ipswich Summer School of Art in Ipswich, Massachusetts. From 1904 to 1922, he was a professor of fine arts at Columbia University Teachers College. His ideas were quite revolutionary for the period. Dow taught that rather than copying nature, individuals should create art through elements of the composition, such as line, mass, and color. Among his students was Georgia O'Keeffe and Charles Burchfield. His ideas on art were published in his 1899 book Composition: A Series of Exercises in Art Structure for the Use of Students and Teachers.
Aquinnah Cliffs, Gay Head, Martha's Vineyard
Jonas Lie 1880-1940, American
Oil on canvas, 45" x 30" (w x h), circa 1934
Jonas Lie was a Norwegian-born American painter and teacher. From 1897-1906, he studied at the Art Students League of New York. He became known for colorful impressionistic scenes of harbors and coves, painted during the many summers he spent on the coasts of New England and Canada, depicting brilliantly colored images of the rocky coves and harbors that identify the region's dramatic shoreline.
He documented construction of the Panama Canal with thirty canvases, and represented the United States in the 1928 Summer Olympics art competition.
Between 1901 and the memorial exhibition in 1940 his work was shown all over America. In 1932, King Haakon conferred on Lie Norway's highest civilian honor, making him a Knight of the Order of St. Olav. Jonas Lie was a member of art organizations including the Salmagundi Club and was active in the National Academy of Design.
Untitled (Martha's Vineyard- Aquinnah Cliffs)
Francis Chapin (1899-1965), American
Oil on canvas, 14" x 16" (w x h), circa 1950
Francis W. Chapin (1899-1965) was an American artist. His works included both watercolors and oil paintings of both landscapes and portraits. He went to the Art Institute of Chicago and later was an instructor there from 1929 to 1947. Chapin was approached by Grant Wood and accepted a faculty position at the Stone City Art Colony, where he taught lithography for two summers. His work was also part of the painting event in the art competition at the 1932 Summer Olympics. From 1951 to 1953, he served as visiting artist at the University of Georgia.
Among Chapin's notable showings were at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C. His works are in permanent collections at the Art Institute of Chicago, Brooklyn Museum (NYC), Philadelphia Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art (NYC), Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Syracuse University, and other museums.
One newspaper article described him as "a colorful figure, nearly 6 feet 6 inches tall, and thin, and usually wearing tweeds." Chapin's papers are held in the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Gay Head
Elizabeth Lockhart Taft, American
Oil on wood panel, 40" x 31" (w x h), 2013, $13,000
Elizabeth Lockhart Taft lives on Martha's Vineyard. She has a BFA from the Maryland Institute, College of Art, Baltimore, MD and an MFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA.
Her website is HERE.
The Vineyard Awaiting Gretchen
Karen Loftus, American
Oil on canvas, 2014
Karen Loftus lives and paints in Hudson, MA. Her Etsy website is HERE.
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Martha's Vineyard, Gay Head
Dennis Boyce, American
Acrylic on wood, 26" x 20" (w x h), 2015
Dennis Boyce studied art at Pratt Institute and The Art Students League, New York. His website is HERE.
Gay Head 2020 One
Tracy Burtz, American
Oil on Linen, 22" x 19" (w x h), 2020
Tracy Burtz's website is HERE.
Aquinnah Beach Sunny Cliff
Marjorie Mason, American
Oil, 2021
Marjorie Mason, born in New York City, grew up in Florida and Massachusetts. She graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with a B.F.A. in 1981. She lives year round on Martha's Vineyard. Her website is HERE.
Aquinnah Cliffs
Joyce Zavorskas, American
Oil on linen on birch, 12" x 9" (w x h) 2023
Joyce Zavorskas is a Cape Cod painter, a graduate of Syracuse University and MassArt. She's exhibited in Boston, California, Cape Cod, London, New York, Paris, and Philadelphia. Her web site is HERE.
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