The Shad Fisherman

Charles Hawthorne was passionate in his quest to paint the underlying structure and spirit of his subjects. He once told his students that "the artist…must show people more—more than they already see, and he must show them with so much human sympathy and understanding that they will recognize it as if they themselves had seen the beauty and the glory." [Time, June 30, 1961, p. 42]. The Shad Fisherman accomplishes just that, displaying an uncanny and eerie sense of presence. Hawthorne’s work is a tour de force of immediacy achieved in part with broad strokes of paint applied with a palette knife rather than a brush. As speed was foremost on his mind in order to reach a oneness with his sitter, Hawthorne championed fields of color rather than detailed drawing, maintaining intensified feeling and aura. To further realize an impression of form, he emphasized the relation of one color against another. Broad patches of pinkish-red cover the neck and cheeks of the fisherman so that one senses his ruddy complexion brought on by the wind-swept seas. The shad fish is wet and fresh, bloodied from being caught just a brief time ago. Soon it will be cleaned, for a shallow bowl is waiting for that purpose on the left. The shad fisherman is a rugged, hearty soul. His face overflows with character, but his pensive gaze away from the viewer invites a depth at odds with his daily labor. In the calm grandeur of the presentation, the palette knife of Hawthorne raises this ordinary personage of a Portuguese fisherman to a level of near nobility.

Hawthorne was born in Lodi, Illinois, but shortly thereafter his parents moved to the seaport town of Richmond, Maine, where his father was a sea captain. Charles was intent on becoming an artist, and sedulously pursued his studies to achieve his dream. At age eighteen he left Maine for Manhattan. By day he worked as an office clerk in the stained-glass factory of J. and R. Lamb Studios and by night he studied art. Hawthorne attended the Art Students League in 1893 while also taking classes at the National Academy of Design. Further improvement came under the auspices of William Merritt Chase, with whom Hawthorne studied at Chase’s Shinnecock Long Island Summer School. Chase was so impressed with Hawthorne that in 1897 he took him on as his assistant. Determined to sharpen his skills, Hawthorne traveled to Europe, where in Holland he fell under the spell of the lively portraits by Dutch Baroque painter Frans Hals (1582-1666) whose work inspired him to adopt the technique of thickly applying paint with a palette knife rather than with a brush. Travels to Italy and contemplation of the Renaissance masters such as Perugino and Titian further enriched his aesthetic outlook.

Resolved to direct his own school of art, he returned to America and founded in 1899 the Cape Cod School in Provincetown, Massachusetts, at that time an idyllic fishing village. For thirty years he presided over the school, which began as one of the first outdoor summer schools for figure painting and grew to national prominence. No doubt the proximity to the sea lured Hawthorne, as did the colorful community of Portuguese fishermen and their families. The Shad Fisherman draws from this group. After the American Revolution, a robust increase in Portuguese sailors immigrated to the area.

The Shad Fisherman was donated in 1926 by Union League Club member Paul Schulze, who had purchased the work just a few years after it was painted. He was a member of the Art Committee of the Club, and he personally brought the work to the Club and hung it on the wall!