H. BOYLSTON DUMMER

On 19 October 1878, when Dummer was born (in Rowley, Massachusetts), American painters had just exhibited traditional, Salon-style paintings at the Paris Universal Exposition. The most progressive works on display were those by Winslow Homer, George Inness and John La Farge as 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. Dummer could have studied with John Carlson as early as 1906, when the latter was appointed the assistant of Birge Harrison at the Art Students League Summer School at Woodstock. He also took lessons from Eric Pape and George L. Noyes. 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 outdoor 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 Beverly, Massachusetts, on 3 November of 1945. Earlier that year, Carlson died in New York 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.

Sources:
Rockport Art Association, Artists of the Rockport Art Association. Rockport: 1940, p. 46; Cooley, John L., Rockport Sketch Book: Stories of Early Art and Artists. Rockport Art Association, 1965, pp. 55-56; North Shore Arts Association, Masterworks: A 75th Anniversary Survey of Early and Founding Members. Gloucester, MA: 1997, p. 43.

Submitted by Richard H. Love and Michael Preston Worley, Ph.D.

A life-long resident of the state of Massachusetts, H (Horace) Boylston Dummer was an illustrator and painter of diverse subjects in the styles of Impressionism and Realism.

He was born at Rowley and studied at the Eric Pape School of Art and the Art Students League in New York, where a major influence was his teacher John F. Carlson. For many years, he was the staff artist at the Boston Post and also was illustrator for The Youth's Companion. He was active in the Provincetown art colony but got discouraged when he felt it was too crowded.

In 1921, he and his wife settled in Rockport near William Lester Stevens, known as a leading "Rockport Realist." He was active in the Rockport Art Association and the North Shore Arts Association and also exhibited at the National Academy of Design and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

He died suddenly on November 3, 1945 leaving a wife and daughter. He is buried in Rowley, Massachusetts.

Sources include:
death information provided by John T. Quinn who examined the death certificate at the Mass. Bureau of Vital Statistics, Year 1945 Volume 5 page 350