Motif No. 1 - The Painters of Cape Ann*

Motif #1 Emile Gruppe

The English colony at Cape Ann was founded in 1623 and was only the the fourth colonizing effort in New England up to that time, pre-dating the Massachusetts Bay colony and Boston, 25 miles to the south. By 1635, the colony was well-established and already showing up on maps of New England. It wasn’t long before artists were drawn to Cape Ann by the beauty of its rugged and varied topography and quiet, protected coves. Benjamin Blyth (1746 - 1787) and Gilbert Stuart (1750 - 1826) painted portraits of wealthy merchants there. They were followed by luminist Fitz Henry Lane (1804 - 1865). By the mid-1800s, Cape Ann enjoyed thriving trades in both granite paving block production in Rockport, and fishing, centered in the town of Gloucester. Other important towns include Essex, Manchester, Annisquam and Lanesville. The tip of Cape Ann which includes Rockport and Gloucester, is technically an island, split from the mainland …