Dan’s Papers March 4, 2011 danspapers.com Page 13
“The Grand Canal” by Thomas Moran
Moran’s Pride When Venetian Gondolas Glided on Hook & Georgica Ponds By Dan Rattiner Did you know that gondolas, made in Venice, were in use for a long time during the early part of the 20th century plying the ponds of East Hampton? This fact came to my mind last week when I read about an exhibit, which just closed, of beautiful Venetian artifacts at the National Gallery of Art in Washington. One of our gondolas, in East Hampton for 60 years beginning in 1890, was a star of that exhibit. It graced the mezzanine of the East building. The exhibit was called “Venice: Canaletto and His Rivals.” The gondola was built in Venice around 1850 by an unknown gondola maker. Like many another gondola, it was elaborately carved and in use during the last half of the 19th century in Venice, the only place in the world where the main boulevards are entirely made of canals that lead out to the Adriatic Sea on all sides. Venice is, as you probably know, an island city. The year 1850 was, of course, long before motorboats came into general use. Here was a prosperous city of a 100,000 people where goods and services got around almost entire-
time traveled through the west and painted canyons and mountains and wildlife that made him famous. After that tour, he married and moved his family to Main Street in East Hampton, to a mansion he built directly across from Town Pond near the Maidstone Arms on the north side of the street. It is today, as an historic site, undergoing a major restoration from the decrepit condition into which it fell in recent years. Moran painted and lived the bohemian life here. In the 1880s, paintings of Venice made by American Impressionists, often based just on drawings and photographs of those who had been there, became quite the rage. Moran and the others were happy to make them. In 1886, when he was 49 years old, Moran took his family there by steamship to see it for himself. It stunned him. Painting it was one thing. Seeing it another. During his two-month-long stay in Venice, Moran did more of his magnificent work. He was truly inspired. One oil painting he did, “The Grand Canal” accompanies this article. While in Venice, Moran and his wife, as many tourists did, hired their own personal gondolier. His name was Giovanni Hitz. He took them everywhere through the hundreds and hundreds of canals of the city, showing them all he knew about the place. At the end of Moran’s stay in Venice, Moran asked if he could buy the gondola that Giovanni was using. He offered a high price. He would take it home as cargo on the
At the end of Moran’s stay in Venice, he asked if he could buy the gondola that Giovanni was using. He offered a high price.
Dan Rattiner’s second memoir, IN THE HAMPTONS TOO: Further Encounters with Farmers, Fishermen, Artists, Billionaires and Celebrities, is now available in hardcover wherever books are sold. The first memoir, IN THE HAMPTONS, published by Random House, is now available in paperback.
ly by gondola. Thousands of them were in use. This one was not that special. It was just one of them. One of America’s great painters is Thomas Moran. Born in 1837, he came out to the East End with other New York City artists in the late 1800s to teach painting to members of the wealthy families vacationing in their mansions in Southampton during the summers in those years. The group was known as the Shinnecock School, and their work, magnificent and passionate, of course overshadowed the works of their students. The Shinnecock School lasted three summers. Among those teaching there were the painters Robert Henri, William Merritt Chase and of course Thomas Moran. The men were at that time the heart of the American Impressionist movement. They created portraits and scenes that take your breath away. Unlike the others who went back to live in New York City when the school ended, Moran fell in love with the farms and windmills of the Hamptons. He also during this
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