Brush
with Destiny at the Twin Lights Museum
Decades-Long Search Comes to a Happy
Conclusion
(Highlands, NJ — October
1, 2011) As unsolved mysteries go, it was
hardly primetime material. Yet to the folks at the Twin Lights Museum,
the whereabouts of Granville Perkins’s iconic painting of the Navesink
Light Station had been at the very top of the list for a long, long
time. This summer, after 140 years in private hands, the stunning
watercolor finally found its way home—and will be on display to the
public at the museum in time for the New Jersey Lighthouse Challenge,
October 15th and 16th.
“We knew the
Perkins painting last went up for auction in New York about 20 years
ago,” says Mark Stewart, head of the Twin Lights Historical Society’s
Collections Committee. “We suspected that it ended up in a home in this
area, and sure enough, that’s where we found it.”
Or rather,
that’s where the painting “found” the Twin Lights.
“Out of the
blue, we were contacted by the owner, a longtime area resident who had
recently moved north,” explains Margaret Carlsen, Curator of the Twin
Lights Museum. “He planned to sell the painting, but felt that it
should be part of our permanent collection. His price was fair and we
raised the funds very quickly from member donations to purchase the
work.”
Perkins was
commissioned to paint the “Twin Lights of Neversink” by the publisher
D. Appleton & Co. of New York for the 1872 book Picturesque
America. Appleton’s engravers used the painting to create a plate
for the book, which featured dramatic views of the United States. Over
the years, antique dealers have pulled individual prints from Picturesque
America and sold them individually. Many homes in our area have
framed prints of the Twin Lights from the book—some black and white,
some hand-colored.
“Because
Perkins knew his work would be reproduced in a black-and-white
engraving, he employed much more contrast than would have been typical
in a watercolor of this period,” says Mary Jo Kenny, President of the
Twin Lights Historical Society. “It’s truly stunning. We are all so
used to seeing the print, you get a chill when you actually encounter
the real thing. As far as we know, this is the first time the painting
has ever been exhibited to the public.”
The unveiling
of the Granville Perkins acquisition (members already are calling it
“our Mona Lisa”) coincides with the reopening of the Museum Store,
which has been completely redesigned by a team of master carpenters
with a grant from the state.
“People will
come to see the Perkins, but the Museum Store has just as much of a Wow!
factor,” adds Kenny. “What a great job they did. The transformation is
just sensational.”
For more
information contact Margaret Carlsen at 732 - 872 - 1814
Captions:
Color photo -
Granville Perkins iconic painting of the Navesink Light Station in 1871
Black and
White photo - Published image reproduced in black and white
Click on image to enlarge