Boston Harbor

Mabel Woodbury (1877-1945)
Boston Harbor, 1910
Oil on canvas on board

Mabel May Woodward spent her entire professional career in and around Providence,
Rhode Island. Summer painting excursions took her to the diverse locations of Ogunquit,
Maine and Gloucester, Massachusetts and she was often observed painting the New
England coast line’s abundant beaches, landscapes and harbors along with her
contemporaries that included Anne Carleton, Jane Peterson, Gertrude Fiske, Bessie
Wessel, and Charles Woodbury among others. Woodward frequently cited William
Merritt Chase and Frank Vicent DuMond as the main teachers in her life. However, the
influence of the painter and teacher Charles Woodbury on Woodward’s style is significant.
Although he would eventually break off from the traditionalism of the Boston School to
form his own kinetic school of painting, Woodbury retained strong ties to his city of origin.
Given her artistic milieu, it is not surprising that Woodward would have painted Boston’s
lively harbor, a noted attraction for established Boston School painters and visiting artists
alike. Woodward is best known for her quickly executed impressionistic brushwork and for
utilizing a spontaneously light and bright palette. Her rendition of Boston Harbor differs
from her bright, sunny Gloucester beach scenes as it depicts the working life of the harbor.
The hazy mist and distant sunlight as well the buildings reflected off of the surface of the
water reveal Woodward’s mastery of light, shadow and architectural draftsmanship.
Although the scene is suspended in motion, the water, in the spirit of a Charles Woodbury
painting, is not without kinetic movement.