Jay Hall Connaway
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Jay Hall Connaway (1893–1970) was a realist painter and art teacher, with a muscular painterly style, renowned primarily for scenes of sea and surf around
Monhegan Island Monhegan () is an island in the Gulf of Maine. A plantation, a minor civil division in the state of Maine falling between unincorporated area and a town, it is located approximately off the mainland and is part of Lincoln County, Maine, United S ...
, Maine. The
Portland Museum of Art The Portland Museum of Art, or PMA, is the largest and oldest public art institution in Maine. Founded as the Portland Society of Art in 1882. It is located in the downtown area known as The Arts District in Portland, Maine. History The PMA use ...
said of him in a posthumous exhibition catalog: "a student of the sky, waves, and snow-covered hills of Maine and Vermont, Jay Connaway belonged to the generation that presented the region as timeless and quiet in the face of modernity and ensured that the image of New England maintained a prominent role in the American imagination."


Biography


Birth and early art training

Connaway was born in
Liberty, Indiana Liberty is a town in and the county seat of Union County, Indiana, United States, located about west of the state's border with Ohio. The population was 2,000 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. History The Liberty post office has b ...
, November 27, 1893, the son of Cass Connaway, a lawyer and collector of Chinese art, and his wife May. Jay Connaway graduated from
Emmerich Manual High School Emmerich Manual High School, often referred to as Manual High School, is a Public school (government funded), public high school in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. It formerly was a traditional high school in the Indianapolis Public Schools ...
and undertook his first art training from William Forsyth, known for coastal Oregon views, at John Herron School of Art in Indianapolis in 1910 and 1911. Connaway's father bitterly opposed his son's becoming an artist. Connaway left home to tour the California and Oregon coasts, working his way across the country and then back to the East Coast as a stoker on engines for the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad. In New York Connaway enrolled at the
National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Frederick Styles Agate, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, an ...
school in 1912, though he did not graduate: he defaulted rather than submit the "examination" drawing, a frequent occurrence among Academy students in the earlier years of the twentieth century. From 1912 to 1914 he attended the Art Student's League at New York City, where he studied with
George Bridgman George Brant Bridgman (November 5, 1864 – December 16, 1943) was a Canadian-American Painting, painter, writer, and teacher in the fields of anatomy and figure drawing. Bridgman taught anatomy for artists at the Art Students League of New Yor ...
and with
William Merritt Chase William Merritt Chase (November 1, 1849October 25, 1916) was an American painter, known as an exponent of Impressionism and as a teacher. He is also responsible for establishing the Chase School, which later became the Parsons School of Design. ...
. Another influence was
Robert Henri Robert Henri (; June 24, 1865 – July 12, 1929) was an American painter and teacher. As a young man, he studied in Paris, where he identified strongly with the Impressionists, and determined to lead an even more dramatic revolt against A ...
, a New York
Social Realist Social realism is work produced by painters, printmakers, photographers, writers, filmmakers and some musicians that aims to draw attention to the real socio-political conditions of the working class as a means to critique the power structures ...
and leader of the
Ashcan School The Ashcan School, also called the Ash Can School, was an artistic movement in the United States during the late 19th-early 20th century that produced works portraying scenes of daily life in New York, often in the city's poorer neighborhoods. T ...
, whom Connaway had met while attending night classes at the National Academy. It was during this period that Connaway first traveled to Maine to study and paint the rocky coast and ocean swells. These early years in New York and Maine were hard, according to columnist
Lowell Nussbaum Lowell Nussbaum (born November 6, 1901 – November 22, 1987) was a professional journalist whose ''The Things I Hear'' column ran in ''The Indianapolis Star'' newspaper from 1945 to 1971. He was inducted into the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame i ...
writing in the ''
Indianapolis Star Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County. Indianapolis is situated in the state's central till plain region along the west fork of ...
'' after his death. " nNew York ... he lived a hand-to-mouth existence. There he practically lived on canned tomatoes because they were so cheap. And when he was painting the sea on an island off the coast of Maine, in the summer, he lived on berries. Food wasn't the worst of his problems. With no income, he couldn't buy canvases. When he was lucky enough to have a shirt to wear, he sometimes would stretch it and paint on it. To conceal his lack of a shirt when he was outside his room, he turned his coat collar up." In New York, he briefly took a studio in the
Tenth Street Studio Building The Tenth Street Studio Building, constructed in New York City in 1857, was the first modern facility designed solely to serve the needs of artists. It became the center of the New York art world for the remainder of the 19th century. Situated a ...
near his teacher William Merrit Chase, but the advent of
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
suddenly removed him from the New York art world—and yet gave him the opportunities which launched his career.


Career as an artist

In 1917 the 24-year-old enlisted and shipped out to Contrexeville, France. After suffering a shoulder wound, he worked as a cartographer. Then he was assigned to what he called "the most wonderful work of my life"—making detailed watercolor drawings of lesions caused by mustard gas. This brought him to the attention of Lafayette Page, a physician who was so impressed with Connaway's draftsmanship that, at the close of the war, he sponsored his studies at the Académie Julian (1919–20) under Jean Paul Laurens and at the École des Beaux-Arts (1921) in Paris. On the return trip to America, fortuitously Connaway made a shipboard contact with Frederick Keppel, the owner of an international art and print firm who introduced Connaway to Robert Macbeth of Macbeth Gallery, New York. Connaway's first of many one-man shows was held at Macbeth Gallery in 1923. With backing from Macbeth and art collector Bartlett Arkell, supplemented by cash from artists
Paul Dougherty Paul Dougherty may refer to: * Paul Dougherty (footballer) * Paul Dougherty (artist) Paul Hampden Dougherty (September 6, 1877 – January 9, 1947) was an American marine painter. Dougherty (pronounced dog-er-tee) was recognized for his Americ ...
and
Emil Carlsen Soren Emil Carlsen (October 19, 1848, Copenhagen, Denmark – January 2, 1932, New York City, U.S.) was an American Impressionism, American Impressionist painter who emigrated to the United States from Denmark. He became known for his still lifes ...
, and advice from painter
Frederick Judd Waugh Frederick Judd Waugh (September 13, 1861 in Bordentown, New Jersey – September 10, 1940) was an American artist, primarily known as a marine artist. During World War I, he designed ship camouflage for the U.S. Navy, under the direction of Ever ...
, Connaway, "seeking to paint the lonely sea" found his way to uninhabite
Head Harbor Island
off the coast of Jonesport, Maine where he lived as an artistic hermit. He later worked dories with a Grand Banks fishing fleet, was also a cook for a lumber camp in Maine, and he enlisted in the Coast Guard. In 1927 Connaway met and in 1928 married Louise Boehle, a classically trained pianist and nurse. With financial backing again from Macbeth and Arkell, the couple embarked on a three-year trip to France, where Connaway painted the rugged coast of Brittany. There at
Pont-Aven Pont-Aven (; in Breton) is a commune in the Finistère department in the Brittany region in Northwestern France. Demographics Inhabitants of Pont-Aven are called in French. Pont-Aven absorbed the former commune of Nizon in 1954, which had ...
, their only daughter Leonebel Marie Frances was born in 1929. Upon their return to the United States in 1931 in the midst of the
Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
, again, Bartlett Arkell and Robert Macbeth sponsored the artist, this time providing first a studio in Portland, Maine; and then a cottage on the remote art colony island of Monhegan. He was one of the three principal painters on Monhegan during the 1930s and 1940s, the others being Abraham Bogdanove; and Andrew Winter (artist), Andrew Winter (who came to Monhegan at Connaway's suggestion). There Connaway started the Connaway Art School. At the outbreak of World War II, the Connaways left Monhegan temporarily and took work to help the war effort at American Car and Foundry Company in Berwick, Pennsylvania. At first Connaway worked the assembly line but was reassigned to draw the tank parts for the catalogue. Connaway returned to Monhegan in the summers to tend to school business and art sales. In 1943 Connaway was elected a member of the
National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Frederick Styles Agate, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, an ...
; he was also a member of the Salmagundi Club. The Connaways remained on Monhegan until 1947, when they moved to Vermont, residing in Dorset until 1953, then North Rupert. Connaway painted rural landscapes of the Vermont countryside and operated a summer art school, until 1966. Connaway also lectured and demonstrated his painting techniques in art schools and museums across America. During the 1950s Connaway found himself at odds with newly ascendant modernism, particularly abstract art. He wrote in his journal: "[t]his game called art, what is it? Am not sure I know. It seems that Realism, a style of saying nothing very well; and Modernism, a style of saying absolutely nothing very, very badly. There must be a middle." In 1962, Connaway merged his school with the Southern Vermont Arts Center and became the school's first director. During the 1960s, in addition to managing the art school Connaway painted in Portugal, Spain, California, and Arizona. In the last year of his life, troubled with poor eyesight and failing health, Connaway was no longer able to paint.


Death

Connaway had taken to spending winters in Green Valley, Arizona in his later years, and he died there on February 18, 1970. Survivors included his widow Louise B. Connaway, his daughter, Leonebel M. Connaway in New York City, a brother, Hugh W. Connaway of Indianapolis, Indiana, a retired photographer for the Indianapolis Star; an Aunt Mrs. Leah Connaway of Liberty, Indiana and first cousins Charles C. Widdows and Glenn Connaway, both also of Liberty. Connaway's widow and daughter donated Conway's papers to the Smithsonian Archives of American Art, where they remain on deposit available to researchers. There is no final resting place: his body was donated at his request to the University of Vermont Medical School, and then the cremated remains scattered in Mettowee Creek behind his studio in North Rupert, Vermont.


Gallery and museum collections

Nearly ninety one-man shows of his works were held during his career, including annual exhibitions at the MacBeth Gallery in New York City; his work was also exhibited at other leading galleries of his day including Vose, Kennedy, and Doll & Richards. His paintings are now sold by major galleries including Spanierman Gallery, Blue Hill Gallery and others. Connaway's work is represented in major public collections throughout the United States, including:
Museum of Fine Arts, BostonPortland Museum of Art
in Portland, Maine
the Monhegan Museum
Maine
Farnsworth Art Museum
in Rockland, Maine
Indianapolis Museum of Art
in Indianapolis, Indiana
Arkell Museum
in Canajoharie, New York
The Colby College Museum of Art
Waterville, Maine

Hagerstown, Maryland


References


External links


Several exhibition catalogs featuring Connaway
from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries (fully available online as PDF) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Connaway, JAy 1893 births 1970 deaths 20th-century American painters American male painters People from Lincoln County, Maine Artists from Maine People from Liberty, Indiana Artists from Indiana 20th-century American male artists Herron School of Art and Design alumni