This photograph shows four members of Guild Hall’s art committee hanging works for the “American Watercolors” exhibition, which ran from June 23 to July 11, 1956, at the museum. It was the first show of the summer season that year. From left to right, Pearl Schoch (1894-1976) sat while Manette Loomis (1908-1991) supervised and Victor de Pauw (1902-1971) and Eleanor Ingersoll Maurice (1901-1995) hung one of a number of watercolor paintings that were on view.
Taken by William Boone, the photo ran in the July 5, 1956, issue of The East Hampton Star along with a front-page article covering the opening. Members of the Eastern Gate Garden Club provided floral arrangements for the show as well as the next one that summer, “Flowers in Art.”
Eleanor Ingersoll Maurice was the chairwoman for the “American Watercolors” exhibition, as well as its curator. Manette Loomis aided in the selection of pieces, as she was the chairwoman of the arts committee from 1956 to 1961, according to “Guild Hall of East Hampton: An Adventure in the Arts,” a 1993 book by Enez Whipple, who was the museum’s director for many years.
The pieces were on loan from galleries, private collections, and artists. In total, there were 39 artists represented, and each one was an American who specialized in watercolor. The subjects were varied, from landscapes and still lifes to abstracts.
Maurice, Schoch, and de Pauw were among those with work in the show, and a majority of the artists featured were their contemporaries, including Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009), Chen Chi (1912-2005), and Jerri Ricci (1916-1995). Other artists were Winslow Homer (1836-1910), Walter Launt Palmer (1854-1932), and East Hampton’s Childe Hassam (1859-1935).
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Christina Pellegrino is a librarian and archivist with the Long Island Collection.
