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About H. Boyslton Dummer
Although probably considered by most art historians to be a Rockport Realist, a *post-impressionist or an illustrator in the realist tradition, H. Boylston Dummer was influenced by the late, brushy impressionism of his teacher, *John F. Carlson. He also took lessons from *Eric Pape and *George L. Noyes, another artist who perpetuated the impressionist technique well into the 1920s. Throughout his career, Dummer employed dynamic *broken color, lively brushwork, and brilliant *plein-air effects, yet he maintained that drawing was the foundation of painting.
When Dummer was born, Americans were exhibiting traditional, Salon-style paintings at the *Paris Universal Exposition of 1878, where there was very little evidence of plein-air landscape painting. The American discovery of *Giverny was still a decade away. But when Dummer turned twenty, the group of impressionists known as *the Ten opened their first exhibition. Therefore, the French aesthetic had made a significant impact in America even before Dummer began learning the fundamentals of art. Dummer could have studied with Carlson as early as 1906, when Carlson was appointed the assistant of *Birge Harrison at the *Art Students League Summer School at *Woodstock. Meanwhile, Dummer worked as a staff artist at the Boston Post and illustrated for The Youth’s Companion, a national weekly children’s magazine. He became known for his depictions of wildlife, which he "captured" in the wild. Dummer was active in *Provincetown’s *artists colony until it became too crowded.
In 1921, Dummer and his wife moved from Provincetown to Rockport, bought a house on Mill Lane near that of *William Lester Stevens, another great plein-air painter, and soon became a founding member of the Rockport Art Association. Mrs. Dummer assisted him with his duties as treasurer. Dummer exhibited only once at the *National Academy of Design, a painting called Up in Vermont, in 1931 but he was active in the North Shore Arts Association between 1926 and his death in November of 1945. Earlier that year, Dummer’s teacher Carlson died in New York (20 March) and the town of Rockport purchased the venerable fish shack known as Motif No. 1, as many had feared the favorite monument of local painters might be torn down.
As the postwar era was just beginning, the kind of art that Dummer professed was being ruthlessly supplanted by Abstract Expressionism and whatever else New York dictated. The Rockport Realists, however, would continue to be inspired by the simple *picturesque views of docks, quarries, and town festivals. While the Cape Ann Society of Modern Artists represented modernist trends, the tradition of *Aldro T. Hibbard, Stevens, Carl W. Peters, and their followers still holds forth today and exemplifies Cape Ann art. |
Paintings by H. Boyslton Dummer
| Rockport |
| oil on canvas: 20 x 24 inches |
| signed: lower left |
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| Checker Players |
| oil on canvas:30 x 40 inches |
| signed: lower right |
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| Pronghorns |
| oil on canvas:40 x 50 inches |
| signed: lower right |
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| The Sleigh Ride |
| oil on canvas:40 x 50 inches |
| signed: lower right |
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