Jetty at Low Tide

Joseph Rodefer DeCamp’s Jetty at Low Tide is a view looking across Smith’s Cove (now Smith Cove), part of the harbor at Gloucester, Massachusetts. The image focuses on the jetty bearing a pipe that carried fresh water from a hill above the harbor to waterboats that sold it to larger vessels. Seen from the water’s edge this seemingly fragile structure orchestrates the entire composition: the receding verticals of the piers and their reflections lead the eye into the distance, the horizontal pipe echoes the high horizon, and the slender railing above it enframes the trees and houses in the left distance. On the right, a wooden dock on the opposite shore repeats the motif of the jetty at a distance. The overcast sky, in which fluffy white clouds mingle with blue, is reflected in the slightly rippling surface of the harbor. DeCamp brushed paint drily over the prepared surface of the canvas, allowing the light-colored ground layer underneath to appear through the pigment in minute spots that heighten the effect of scintillating reflected light.

Beginning in the early 1890s, DeCamp established a reputation through his landscapes, which feature the broken brushwork and concern for transient light effects that characterize the aesthetic known as impressionism. Noted for painting his landscapes outdoors and on site, according to impressionist methods, rather than in the studio, DeCamp was one of a host of American painters who, beginning in the mid-1880s, adapted impressionism’s strategies to express the local character of specific, distinctly American settings. Gloucester, long an artists’ haunt, was one such place: many of DeCamp’s fellow American impressionist painters worked there at the turn of the twentieth century. Indeed, the composition of Jetty at Low Tide, with its receding line of piers, may have been inspired by a similar work, Gloucester Pier (private collection), painted about the same time by DeCamp’s friend, former teacher, and fellow Cincinnati native Frank Duveneck.

Jetty at Low Tide exemplifies many of the features that distinguish American impressionism. With its carefully chosen viewpoint, structured composition, and concern for abstract, geometric order, the work reflects a concern for creating beauty from a purely decorative arrangement of forms; at the same time, neither the play of abstract elements nor the rapid, broken brushwork detract from the clear representation of the scene and the impression of Gloucester as a charmingly quiet locale.

Thirteenth Annual Exhibition of Oil Paintings and Sculpture of the Art Club of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, November 18–December 15, 1901, no. 59 (as The Water Pier).

Impressionism: An American View, The Canton Art Institute, Canton, Ohio, The Westmoreland County Museum of Art, Greensburg, Pennsylvania, and The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio (organizers). Venues: The Canton Art Institute, Canton, Ohio, February 20–April 3, 1983; The Westmoreland County Museum of Art, Greensburg, Pennsylvania, April 9–May 22, 1983; The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio, June 5–July 17, 1983. [exh. cat.]

Masterworks in American Art from the Daniel J. Terra Collection, Terra Museum of American Art, Evanston, Illinois (organizer). Venues: Terra Museum of American Art, Evanston, Illinois, April 27–September 12, 1985.

A Proud Heritage: Two Centuries of American Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venues: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, April 21–June 21, 1987. [exh. cat.]

In Nature's Ways: American Landscape Painting of the Late Nineteenth Century, Norton Gallery of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida (organizer). Venues: Norton Gallery of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida, February 21–April 12, 1987; Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, September 10–November 1, 1987. [exh. cat.]

An American Revelation: The Daniel J. Terra Collection, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venues: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, February 28–October 1, 1988.

Selected Works from the Collections: Two Hundred Years of American Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venues: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, April 12–August 27, 1997.

Rivières et rivages: les artistes américains, 1850–1900 (Waves and Waterways: American Perspectives, 1850–1900), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venues: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–October 31, 2000. [exh. cat.]

Artistic Independence in 1898: The Ten American Painters, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venues: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, May 4–July 21, 2002.

American Classics from the Collection, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venues: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, May 14–June 15, 2003.

American Classics, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venues: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, December 13, 2003–February 8, 2004.

A Narrative of American Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venues: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, February 13–October 31, 2004.

Albacete, M. J. Impressionism: An American View. (exh. cat., The Butler Institute of American Art). Youngstown, Ohio: The Butler Institute of American Art, 1983. No. 12, p. 16.

Atkinson, D. Scott et al. A Proud Heritage: Two Centuries of American Art. Edited by Terry A. Neff. (exh. cat., Terra Museum of American Art). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1987. Pl. T-95, p. 204 (color).

Weber, Bruce and William H. Gerdts. In Nature's Ways: American Landscape Painting of the Late Nineteenth Century. (exh. cat., Norton Gallery of Art). West Palm Beach, Florida: Norton Gallery of Art, 1987. Fig. 15, p. 47 (color).

Buckley, Laurene. Joseph DeCamp: Master Painter of the Boston School. (exh. cat., Adelson Galleries, Inc.). Munich, Germany: Prestel-Verlag, 1995. Text p. 66; pl. 15, p. 71 (color).