An Artist, A Painting and A Mystery Solved During Covid

This is the story of an artist, a painting and a mystery solved, which proved to be an excellent diversion during the time of Covid.

About 25 years ago, while visiting?The New Bedford Whaling Museum , I happened across some paintings by an artist named?Clifford Ashley . Mr. Ashley was born in New Bedford and spent his career painting and drawing ships, landscapes and waterscapes around 1900. He had firsthand knowledge of whaling and was also famous for authoring the world's preeminent book of knots, called appropriately?The Ashley Book of Knots , which cataloged over 3,500 knots for use by mariners (or those wanting to be mariners).

While not an "art guy" something in these paintings spoke to me 25 years ago so I began to casually look for his work from time to time at auctions. This proved to be time consuming as you'd have to comb through individual auction house sites, sign up for notifications, etc. The introduction of the site?Invaluable.com ?helped a ton as you could now find auctions online in one location.

In December of 2019 I noticed one of Ashley's paintings was to be auctioned of in March, 2020 in Philadelphia. What was striking about this painting was it looked familiar--the view, the topograpy and the barren landscape all looked like something I had seen many times during my college summer job . I called the auction house to inquire more about the painting. Interesting enough they knew very little about it, as it was being auctioned off on behalf of the?Delaware Art Museum? (Mr. Ashley split his time between New Bedford and Wilmington, Delaware later in life). Neither the auction house (nor the museum after being contacted as well) knew the name nor the subject matter and due to a museum move in the 80's, they also did not know how it was acquired. The museum had put notices in the newspaper in order to sell the piece.

My gut told me the painting was of the?Elizabeth Islands , off of Cape Cod, so I bid modestly on the painting and won it. It was slightly damaged and dirty so I had it repaired and cleaned here in Boston. Around this time, Covid was hitting hard and so with time on my hands so began my adventure to find out what I could about the painting's backstory.

I learned through research Mr. Ashley had a surviving sister?Jane , also an artist, who lived in Vermont. I contacted her and she informed me that her nephew was in the process of cataloging all of her brother's works. I contacted the nephew, sent him a picture of the painting and waited. The nephew amazingly had the artist's original card catalogue of his works---334 paintings--and he puzzled for a while over what painting this could be.

He thought perhaps it was the #27 painting, titled "Landlocked Harbor" whose card stated "From the cockpit of Auklet looking north showing White Heron & Bagheera with Rams Island in the Background." We went back and forth on this idea, and the nephew seemed confident that this indeed was my painting and it was of Hadley's Harbor in the Elizabeth Islands. There was a lingering question as to what "White Heron" and Bagheera" were and the topography of the Hadley's Harbor area was in my mind slightly different than what was shown in my painting.

The conversation with the nephew did confirm that my painting was completed at the same time as others that he and his family owned--in the summer of 1913 while the artist sailed around the Elizabeth Islands in his 23 foot boat called?Auklet . But the subject matter was still a mystery. An even greater mystery ensued as the card catalogue upon further inspection was missing a card for painting #31.

As we kept discussing the painting, the nephew noticed what could be a lighthouse and another structure (which later was determined to be a fog station which was destroyed in the huricane of 1938), and compared it against an 1896 photograph of a place called Tarpaulin Cove also in the Elizabeth Islands.

Given the similarities, he and I now felt that the painting was potentially of Tarpaulin Cove, but the mystery continued as we still did not know the specific subject matter nor the title. Could the painting actually be the missing #31 from the card catalogue?

About four months ago, I got an email from the nephew with great news. In a pile of other papers from his grandfather, he found the missing card from the original card catalog. It turns out this painting is the missing #31, is titled Wind & Rain and it was indeed a painting of Tarpaulin Cove in the Elizabeth Islands. Even more interesting that the painting was purchased from the artist directly by Mrs. T. Coleman du Pont (Alice) in 1914 for the price of $450.

I have not been able to find out much about Alice (pictured to the right), but her husband?Mr. Thomas Coleman du Pont? was a two term senator from Delaware, and was also implicated in the infamous Teapot Dome scandal (Something you probably read about in high school history). It appears the family owned the painting until the 1980's at which time it was donated to the Delaware Art Museum along with some other paintings also by the artist.

So after a year plus of sleuthing during Covid, I had my answer about the painting and its history which proved to be a terrific distraction during Covid times. Sometimes a side project is what you need to get through tough times.

(And yes my family thinks I'm totally nuts on this whole thing).