Stephen Etnier
Encyclopedia
Stephen Morgan Etnier was an American
realist
painter, painting for six decades. His work is distinguished by a mixture of realism and luminism
, favoring industrial and working scenes, but always imbued with atmospheric light. Geographically, his career spanned the length of the eastern Atlantic and beyond.
. From 1915 to 1922 he attended the Haverford and Hill schools in Pennsylvania and Roxbury Tutoring School in Connecticut. He matriculated into Yale University
class of 1926, transferring to Yale Art School in December 1922. Re-entering Yale University in 1923 he was later dismissed for poor grades. He entered Haverford College
in 1924 and transferred to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, where he studied for four years.
From 1925 through 1929 he studied and apprenticed under the artists Henry Breckinridge, Rockwell Kent
and John Carroll.
, Somerset Maugham's novel based on the life of the painter Paul Gauguin
, Etnier pursued painting, launching his career with a solo exhibition at Dudensing Galleries, New York City in 1931. He soon moved to New York's Milch Gallery, where he would remain until the 1960s.
Etnier's early work of 1930s and 1940s provides a record of his life at the time. His work shows street scenes in his home state of Pennsylvania, waterfronts from his travels to Haiti and the Bahamas, (and made while sailing the Eastern Seaboard aboard his 70-foot sailboat, Morgana), aerial perspectives created as he learned to fly, and dramatic Maine landscapes, painted while he renovated a stately 1862 home, "Gilbert Head".
Gilbert Head was on Long Island, Maine at the opening of the Kennebec River
and across from Fort Popham
and Popham Beach. Etnier and his wife Betsy lived on the Morgana for two years while they renovated the house. Her account of these years, On Gilbert Head, was published in 1937.
In 1938 he executed the mural "Waiting for the Mail," installed at the U.S. Post Office
in Spring Valley, New York
, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places
in 1988. In 1940 he painted a second mural, "Mail for New England" at the Boston, MA. Everett Branch Post Office. In 2010 this mural was restored and reinstalled at the Clarendon Street Post Office in Boston.
. In May 1942, Etnier was commissioned as a lieutenant and assigned as commanding officer of the USS Mizpah, a North Atlantic convoy escort ship. In 1944, he was reassigned to the USS Tourmaline in Boston, and later to the USS General Omar Bundy in San Francisco. He completed his tour of duty in 1945.
, Maine in 1948 to build "Old Cove", his dream house and studio. Designed in collaboration with Portland, Maine architect James Saunders, the home features a porch cantilevered over the ocean, north-facing windows for his studio, and a living room overlooking the ocean and framed by Mondrian
-inspired window frames. Named for the private cove it overlooks, the home served as the foundation for a productive and increasingly serene period in Etnier's career.
The 1950s and 1960s mark a maturing, accomplished style in Etnier's work. Although still traveling south most winters in his boat, his life took a more domestic turn as he re-adopted Maine as his permanent home and married his fourth wife, Samuella "Brownie" Brown Rose. They were married for thirty-three years and had two sons. During those years, he painted daily, exhibited widely and enjoyed popular support, artistic awards and media attention.
Etnier's work became more architectural, marked by stark geometry, light and shadow, impressionistic figures and accents of color and modern culture. He adopted an artist's discipline of rising early and painting each morning (learned first from Rockwell Kent ), seeking to capture the essence of Maine waterfronts and landscapes and the effects of light. The study of sunlight and water fascinated Etnier until the end of his career.
On November 7, 1984, Stephen Etnier died at Old Cove, comforted by his two sons.
, Boston Museum of Fine Arts and other museums across the United States. Acclaim includes his election as an academician by the National Academy of Design and a retrospective exhibit at the Farnsworth Museum in Rockland, Maine in 1953; receipt of the Saltus Award by the National Academy of Design in 1955; a solo exhibition at York Junior College in York, Pennsylvania and the Samuel F. B. Morse gold medal from the National Academy of Design in 1964; and a solo exhibition at the Bristol Art Museum in Bristol, Rhode Island in 1965. In 1969, Etnier was awarded honorary doctorates of fine arts from Bates College and Bowdoin College in Maine. In that year, he also began his association with Midtown Gallery in New York City.
Posthumous retrospective exhibitions were mounted at the Portland Museum of Art
in 1998 and at the Historical Society of York County
in 1989.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
realist
Realism (visual arts)
Realism in the visual arts is a style that depicts the actuality of what the eyes can see. The term is used in different senses in art history; it may mean the same as illusionism, the representation of subjects with visual mimesis or verisimilitude, or may mean an emphasis on the actuality of...
painter, painting for six decades. His work is distinguished by a mixture of realism and luminism
Luminism (American art style)
Luminism is an American landscape painting style of the 1850s – 1870s, characterized by effects of light in landscapes, through using aerial perspective, and concealing visible brushstrokes...
, favoring industrial and working scenes, but always imbued with atmospheric light. Geographically, his career spanned the length of the eastern Atlantic and beyond.
Childhood and education
Stephen Etnier was born in September, 1903 in York, PennsylvaniaYork, Pennsylvania
York, known as the White Rose City , is a city located in York County, Pennsylvania, United States which is in the South Central region of the state. The population within the city limits was 43,718 at the 2010 census, which was a 7.0% increase from the 2000 count of 40,862...
. From 1915 to 1922 he attended the Haverford and Hill schools in Pennsylvania and Roxbury Tutoring School in Connecticut. He matriculated into Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
class of 1926, transferring to Yale Art School in December 1922. Re-entering Yale University in 1923 he was later dismissed for poor grades. He entered Haverford College
Haverford College
Haverford College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college located in Haverford, Pennsylvania, United States, a suburb of Philadelphia...
in 1924 and transferred to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, where he studied for four years.
From 1925 through 1929 he studied and apprenticed under the artists Henry Breckinridge, Rockwell Kent
Rockwell Kent
Rockwell Kent was an American painter, printmaker, illustrator, and writer.- Biography :Rockwell Kent was born in Tarrytown, New York, the same year as fellow American artists George Bellows and Edward Hopper...
and John Carroll.
Early career
Drawing inspiration from The Moon and SixpenceThe Moon and Sixpence
The Moon and Sixpence is a novel by W. Somerset Maugham, told in episodic form by the first-person narrator as a series of glimpses into the mind and soul of the central character, Charles Strickland, a middle-aged English stockbroker who abandons his wife and children abruptly to pursue his desire...
, Somerset Maugham's novel based on the life of the painter Paul Gauguin
Paul Gauguin
Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin was a leading French Post-Impressionist artist. He was an important figure in the Symbolist movement as a painter, sculptor, print-maker, ceramist, and writer...
, Etnier pursued painting, launching his career with a solo exhibition at Dudensing Galleries, New York City in 1931. He soon moved to New York's Milch Gallery, where he would remain until the 1960s.
Etnier's early work of 1930s and 1940s provides a record of his life at the time. His work shows street scenes in his home state of Pennsylvania, waterfronts from his travels to Haiti and the Bahamas, (and made while sailing the Eastern Seaboard aboard his 70-foot sailboat, Morgana), aerial perspectives created as he learned to fly, and dramatic Maine landscapes, painted while he renovated a stately 1862 home, "Gilbert Head".
Gilbert Head was on Long Island, Maine at the opening of the Kennebec River
Kennebec River
The Kennebec River is a river that is entirely within the U.S. state of Maine. It rises in Moosehead Lake in west-central Maine. The East and West Outlets join at Indian Pond and the river then flows southward...
and across from Fort Popham
Fort Popham
Fort Popham is a coastal defense land battery at the mouth of the Kennebec River in Phippsburg, Maine. It is located in sight of the short-lived Popham Colony and, like the colony, named for George Popham, the colony's leader...
and Popham Beach. Etnier and his wife Betsy lived on the Morgana for two years while they renovated the house. Her account of these years, On Gilbert Head, was published in 1937.
In 1938 he executed the mural "Waiting for the Mail," installed at the U.S. Post Office
U.S. Post Office (Spring Valley, New York)
The U.S. Post Office in Spring Valley, New York, is located on North Madison Street. It is a brick building from the mid-1930s that serves the ZIP Code 10977, covering the village of Spring Valley....
in Spring Valley, New York
Spring Valley, New York
Spring Valley, incorporated on July 9, 1902 is a village spanning the Town of Ramapo and Town of Clarkstown in Rockland County, New York, United States located north of Nanuet; east of Airmont and Monsey; south of Hillcrest and west of West Nyack...
, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in 1988. In 1940 he painted a second mural, "Mail for New England" at the Boston, MA. Everett Branch Post Office. In 2010 this mural was restored and reinstalled at the Clarendon Street Post Office in Boston.
Military service
In 1941, at the age of thirty-eight, Etnier suspended his painting career to serve in the United States NavyUnited States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
. In May 1942, Etnier was commissioned as a lieutenant and assigned as commanding officer of the USS Mizpah, a North Atlantic convoy escort ship. In 1944, he was reassigned to the USS Tourmaline in Boston, and later to the USS General Omar Bundy in San Francisco. He completed his tour of duty in 1945.
Later career
Etnier purchased land in South HarpswellHarpswell, Maine
Harpswell is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, which is geographically within Casco Bay in the Gulf of Maine. The population was 5,239 at the 2000 census. Harpswell is composed of land contiguous with the rest of Cumberland County, called Harpswell Neck, as well as several large and small...
, Maine in 1948 to build "Old Cove", his dream house and studio. Designed in collaboration with Portland, Maine architect James Saunders, the home features a porch cantilevered over the ocean, north-facing windows for his studio, and a living room overlooking the ocean and framed by Mondrian
Piet Mondrian
Pieter Cornelis "Piet" Mondriaan, after 1906 Mondrian , was a Dutch painter.He was an important contributor to the De Stijl art movement and group, which was founded by Theo van Doesburg. He evolved a non-representational form which he termed Neo-Plasticism...
-inspired window frames. Named for the private cove it overlooks, the home served as the foundation for a productive and increasingly serene period in Etnier's career.
The 1950s and 1960s mark a maturing, accomplished style in Etnier's work. Although still traveling south most winters in his boat, his life took a more domestic turn as he re-adopted Maine as his permanent home and married his fourth wife, Samuella "Brownie" Brown Rose. They were married for thirty-three years and had two sons. During those years, he painted daily, exhibited widely and enjoyed popular support, artistic awards and media attention.
Etnier's work became more architectural, marked by stark geometry, light and shadow, impressionistic figures and accents of color and modern culture. He adopted an artist's discipline of rising early and painting each morning (learned first from Rockwell Kent ), seeking to capture the essence of Maine waterfronts and landscapes and the effects of light. The study of sunlight and water fascinated Etnier until the end of his career.
On November 7, 1984, Stephen Etnier died at Old Cove, comforted by his two sons.
Exhibitions and awards
Etnier exhibited frequently in galleries in Pennsylvania, Maine, New York and Dallas. His work appears in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of ArtMetropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
, Boston Museum of Fine Arts and other museums across the United States. Acclaim includes his election as an academician by the National Academy of Design and a retrospective exhibit at the Farnsworth Museum in Rockland, Maine in 1953; receipt of the Saltus Award by the National Academy of Design in 1955; a solo exhibition at York Junior College in York, Pennsylvania and the Samuel F. B. Morse gold medal from the National Academy of Design in 1964; and a solo exhibition at the Bristol Art Museum in Bristol, Rhode Island in 1965. In 1969, Etnier was awarded honorary doctorates of fine arts from Bates College and Bowdoin College in Maine. In that year, he also began his association with Midtown Gallery in New York City.
Posthumous retrospective exhibitions were mounted at the Portland Museum of Art
Portland Museum of Art
The Portland Museum of Art is an art museum in Portland, Maine. Founded as the Portland Society of Art in 1882, it is located in the downtown area known as The Arts District, and is the largest and oldest public art institution in the U.S...
in 1998 and at the Historical Society of York County
York County, Pennsylvania
York County is a county in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. As of 2010, the population was 434,972. It is in the Susquehanna Valley, a large fertile agricultural region in South Central Pennsylvania....
in 1989.
Marriages and children
Stephen Etnier married Mathilde Gray, the daughter of John Lathrop Gray, Sr. and Harriet Hamilton Tyng of Greenwich, Connecticut in 1926. They had two daughters; Suzanne Mathilde Etnier, born July 6, 1927, and Penelope Royall Etnier born July 17, 1929. He married Elizabeth Morgan Jay of Westbury, New York in 1933. They had two daughters: Stephanie Jay Etnier was born September 8, 1936, and Elizabeth Victoria Etnier was born May 1, 1940. Etnier's third wife was Jane Walden Pearce, who died soon after they were married in 1948. He married Samuella "Brownie" Brown Rose in 1950. They had two sons; John Stephen Etnier, born August 26, 1953 and David Morrison Etnier, born August 29, 1955. Etnier's fifth and final marriage came in the last months of his life: he married Marcia Hall of Harpswell in 1983. They later divorced.Sources
(Retrospective exhibition catalog with biography and timeline) (essay: "You Should Paint what You Love: Stephen Etnier" pp. 31–36) (Retrospective exhibition catalog with biographical essay) (privately-published autobiography)External links
- Stephen Etnier website
- Biographical essay
- Listing of exhibitions and awards
- Smithsonian Archive oral history interview
- National Academy of Design biography page
- Google press archive
- "Stephen Etnier: Painter of Coasts, Sailor of Seas", Maine Boats, Homes & Harbors magazine
- WorldCat listing of exhibition catalogs