The Sea Girt Libray services the world. Lisa Luke, our librarian reached out to me last week with a mystery.
An email had arrived from the rural town of Daylesford Victoria Australia, about an hour and a half drive from Melbourne. Jennifer T. was looking for help with the origins of a print:
“Hello,
I hope you can help. My friend has recently purchased a house in Daylesford, in regional Victoria, Australia.
On the wall is a print with the words “Sea Girt Sept 9th 1878.” I've found a copy of the print on Almy, which I have attached, but there are no more details about the print on this website.
I am hoping the print is well-known in Sea Girt.
Do you know of the original or any details about this charming work? It seems to be a copy of a preliminary pencil sketch for a later work.
I am most grateful for your help.
Kind regards,
Jennifer T.”
The 1878 sketch which came to us from Down Under
The sketch bears great resemblance to this photograph by Marriott Morris of J. Bunford Samuel & his cedar near the site of his home at Ocean and what is now Brooklyn Blvd in the 1880s The Morris home Avocado is visible to the south in Crescent Park at approximately 619 Ocean Ave. Courtesy of the Library Company of Philadelphia.
The work is a series of four sketches.
The print is the work of Samuel Colman, one of the early watercolor artists of the Hudson River School. Known for their large-format realistic landscapes, the artists of the movement documented the beauty of America.
Colman’s most famous work is the 1863 “Storm King on the Hudson”, which shows both the beauty of the Hudson’s Storm King Mountain and the bucolic river juxtaposed with the technology of steam, using the river for commerce in the coming industrial age. Shortly after, he spent an extended time painting in Europe, returning to New York in 1874.
Colman’s Storm King on the Hudson is almost like two paintings, reflecting the future (left) and the past (right)
In 1878, when there were fewer than a dozen houses in Sea Girt, Colman visited the new resort. The Beach House Hotel offered views up and down the sandhill-covered coast, where the cedars grew up to the beach. Another in his collective of artists was from Germantown outside Philadelphia. William Trost Richards was friendly with the first cottage owner in town Elliston P. Morris of Germantown, PA. Richards’ son Teddy was photographed by Elliston’s son Marriott at the shore.
William Trost Richards was known for his seascapes. This was near Atlantic City.
The Coleman sketch shows the Sea Girt Farmhouse, which still stands in the National Guard Camp, and there are three beach scenes with the artist’s notes. The cedar at the bottom has some layers of color wash on it, and there are color notes.
Two additional works of Colman came from a similar sketch pad. These are more advanced than the one with the notes, but are still preliminary work.
The first is clearly a view of Crescent Park from the south (where the Beach House was located), looking northward.
The second was a view of the sand hills and the ocean north looking towards the Wreck Pond Inlet. Both of these are more refined than the first sketch and contain a wash of several colors.
Marilyn Symmes, the former curator of Illustration and Prints at the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum in NY for 10 years, notes that no further evidence of Samuel Colman's work in Sea Girt (painting or drawing) exists. Colman did spend additional time in NJ after his return from Europe in the early 1870s. For much of the time, he worked as an interior designer on consignment for Loius Comfort Tiffany. (that Tiffany). But he did paint an oil of Barnegat Bay from Mantoloking in 1914.
Tiffany worked with designers like Colman to create interiors of gilded age mansions. Stained Glass, Trompe l'oeil, and color palettes were considerations in many ornate homes.
After providing details on the life of Sam Colman to Jennifer, she suggested why someone from Australia might have ordered a copy of the print.
“Dear Lisa and Vinnie,
I want to express my sincere gratitude for your help.
How wonderful to know the sketch is by Samuel Colman, a member of the Hudson River School.
Vinnie was curious about how a print initially created in Sea Girt ended up in rural Australia. The previous owner saw it and printed it off an artwork website. But no attribution was given, which is sad.
The print caught my eye because it looked like a preliminary sketch for a later artwork, and I believe the artist might be well-known because it stood the test of time. Indeed I even wondered if it was by another great sea artist, Winslow Homer.
Although I didn’t know of your charming community, Sea Girt, the words reminded me of our Australian National Anthem, which includes the phrase "girt by sea."
"Australians all let us rejoice,
For we are one and free;
We've golden soil and wealth for toil;
Our home is girt by sea;
Our land abounds in nature's gifts
Of beauty rich and rare;
In history's page, let every stage Advance Australia Fair.
In joyful strains then let us sing, Advance Australia Fair."
Perhaps the original owner also saw those two words, Sea Girt, and was reminded of our national anthem.
Additionally, the print captured my imagination because I used to own a house by the sea until recently. Within the work, I could feel how wonderful it is to stroll along a windswept beach. Now that I live two hours' drive inland, I miss the seaside.
Once again, I'd like to thank you both for your help. Your assistance has been invaluable.
Enjoy your lovely Sea Girt.
Sincerely,
Jennifer T”
Jennifer’s guess may be on target. Aussies and Americans share a common history as our ancestors were both subjects of the British Empire. Robert F. Stockton picked the name a few decades before the Assie anthem was written in 1878, and the Stockton’s had an illustrious British heritage.
The Australian Flag
From my reply to Jennifer:
“Thanks so much. The town’s name comes from founder Robert Field Stockton, naval Commodore and US Senator who purchased several farms to put together his seaside estate in the 1850s.
His family had settled Princeton NJ in the 1600s and helped move the college to their hometown in 1756.
His Grandfather was Richard Stockton, a member of the Royal King’s Counsel of New Jersey before the revolution, and during a recruiting trip for a president for the college, Stockton was presented to King George IIII and Queen Charlotte. It was a diplomatic mission to head off the Revolution. He charmed London but did not succeed. Stockton, along with Princeton President John Witherspoon signed the Declaration of Independence for New Jersey.
The Stocktons were directly related to Sir John Stockton, Lord Mayor of London who was credited with saving the city in 1471, ending tne War of the Roses, and ushering in the Tudor dynasty.
So when the Commodore purchased his estate and planned to build a mansion on the dunes at the ocean girt between Wreck Pond Inlet and Newberry's Pond, he looked to his English heritage to name the estate.
In 1849 there was a dramatic book written about a Christian martyr Zenon, by Reverend Richard Cobold. Within there is a pleading from the British mother of Zenon, and perhaps this Stocktonesque quote was the inspiration for the name, given he was wholly dedicated to preserving his country in the face of civil war:
"Deeply, deeply indeed did the venerable lady seem to feel this truthful observation. Her eyes, swollen with tears, were lifted up, yet lightened too with such a benign expression, that she became the personification of submission.
‘Preserve my country,’ she exclaimed, ‘preserve my sea-girt isle, my rock-bound shores, my wooded hills, my fertile plains! Preserve my brave people, my loved friends, my virtuous relatives preserve them from Roman tyrannies, Roman vices, Roman superstitions! They are a free-born race, dear ladies, they are a generous people. They are not inhospitable, but they are subdued— they are not slaves. I am a Briton.’”
Cheers and enjoy Victoria, but return to the sea when you can. We will be here looking out from our shores.
Vinnie “
So, citizens of the world, if you have a question, the good people at the Sea Girt Library likely know how to find the answer. It’s library week, so make a visit