Edward Hopper first emerged in the public eye with watercolors like this one, painted along the coast of Maine during summer visits in the late 1920s. Like Marsden Hartley, Stuart Davis applied the Modernist ideas of Cubism and other European Movements to his jazzy depictions of American subjects. He fuses the concerns of modernism with representation in his paintings of Maine's woods and waterways. Abby Shahn United States, b.1940 The Blanket of Night , with its array of colorful squares, is a vision of the night sky which also resembles a quilt to be used on a cold Maine night. With its lively pattern of warm and cool tones, it is a composition that creates optical excitement, drawing the eye from left to right and top to bottom.
Portraiture is a strong focus of the museum's collection across all media.
Paul Strand's sensitive portrait of a young french boy reveals the photographer's remarkable ability to capture the personality of his subjects.