TREASURE IN THE ARCHIVES: PORTRAITS & PORTICOS
By Carolyn Good
The picturesque setting of the Woodstock valley has attracted artists of every kind through the years to chronicle its unique beauty, people and architecture. While cataloguing scrapbooks and albums in the Woodstock History Center’s archives, we’ve uncovered two albums of original work by two very different artists, but both have a definitive eye for detail. One focuses on faces, the other on doorways.
John Nelson Marble
Photo courtesy of Jane Barnard Twitchell (downloaded from Ancestry.com)
JOHN NELSON MARBLE (1855-1918), sketch artist and painter, was a Woodstock native, one of 12 children of Liberty Bates Marble and Elizabeth Woodward Marble. He spent his youth in and about Woodstock, and even at a young age showed a great aptitude for painting. At age 18, he was enrolled at the Normal Art School in Boston, and from there was one of the first students to attend the Art Students’ League in New York, in 1875, where he also kept a studio for a number of years. He later studied at the Academie Julian in Paris and spent the summer of 1900 in Florence, Italy, where he visited the studio of famous Woodstock sculptor Hiram Powers.
He spent most of his adult life in Santa Barbara, California, for his health, and enjoyed exploring the surrounding foothills on horseback, delighting in the splendid opportunities for outdoor life. It was while living in California that he became known as a colorist and produced most of his landscapes. But he is best known for his prolific facial renderings which reveal a remarkable and engaging study of character.
Mr. Marble returned to the East Coast in 1916 to complete a commission to paint perhaps his most famous work, a life-size portrait of Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian Science, which today hangs in the historic Statehouse in Concord, New Hampshire. In Woodstock, he painted portraits of many prominent locals: Frederick Billings, Frederick Billings, Jr., Mrs. Frederick Billings, Rev. Moses Kidder, and A. B. Wilder, among many others. He cordially welcomed visitors to his studio here, where there was much interest in both his charm and his canvases, and he was known for his “gentle, dignified presence.” He died in 1918 as a result of pneumonia, at the Marble family homestead in Woodstock (the current site of Cabot Funeral Home), having never married.
Left: Portrait of Reverend Moses Kidder by John Nelson Marble. © Woodstock History Center
Right: Portrait of Arthur Wilder by John Nelson Marble. © Woodstock History Center
According to family lore, children from the Marble clan, even generations later, would play upon the large erratic boulder behind the house, where they found a spot of blue oil paint, supposedly where “Uncle John” Nelson Marble used to sit and paint. We have in our collection his impressive album of original pencil sketches and photographs of original paintings numbering over 100. They reveal the talent of a man who was able to depict another person’s true strength of character by sketching a face.
Golden wedding anniversary of Liberty Bates and Elizabeth Woodward Marble, John Nelson Marble’s parents, in front of the boulder where “Uncle John” used to paint. © Woodstock History Center
We don’t know much, however, about MISS MURIEL A. THOMAS. She was born in England around 1906. Whether she took her art training in Europe or New York City is unclear, but by the mid-1930s she was living in New York City, and in 1940 was teaching at a private art school in Manhattan. In the late 1800s to early 1900s, artists’ colonies were sprouting up across America in rural towns and villages, following the European model, in places surrounded by inspirational natural beauty where artists could gather for fellowship and contemplation. It was a common practice for artists to spend their winters in a major city such as New York, and their summers with other working artists in art colonies, and Muriel Thomas apparently did the same. We know Miss Muriel spent the summer of 1936 staying at Hyacinth House on Academy Circle in South Woodstock and working as an assistant with the South Woodstock Art Colony for the summer art course based out of the grand hillside home of well-known painter Howard Giles.
While there, she also offered to create personal Christmas cards, suggesting drawings of homes and gardens. We imagine it was here that she met Woodstock resident Mary Grace Canfield doing research for her book on the history of South Woodstock, Valley of the Kedron. Apparently the two developed a working relationship as Miss Muriel provided the delightful pen and ink drawings of the doorways, architecture, and stonework of South Woodstock for Canfield’s book, published in August 1940. It is these exquisite, original drawings, 29 in all, that we have in our collection in a well-preserved album.
Left: Giles House in South Woodstock by Muriel Thomas. © Woodstock History Center
Right: Kingsley House in South Woodstock by Muriel Thomas. © Woodstock History Center
The enchanting landscape of this Woodstock valley has changed little over the centuries, except perhaps for the coming and going of trees on the hillsides. The character of its people and the beauty of its architecture endure as well. Faces and doorways are both our first glimpse into the character that lies within. The Woodstock History Center is fortunate to have these albums of original artwork in our collection.