Salem News: Peabody Essex Museum works bring local flair to Moulton's D.C. office
Four paintings and one sculpture, all on loan courtesy of the Peabody Essex Museum, now reside in Moulton's Washington, D.C., office. Each reflects either the 6th District's links to the sea or the bloodlines of Marblehead, where Moulton grew up.
It's a tradition, Moulton told The News, for congressmen to decorate their offices with artwork reflecting the home district.
"All my colleagues try to create an atmosphere in their Washington offices," he said. "... But most congressmen aren't fortunate enough to have access to a museum like the Peabody Essex."\
Moulton has three rooms within the Longworth House Office Building in Washington. For his personal office he's chosen a bust of George Washington fashioned in the mid-19th century by William Wetmore Story, son of Marblehead-born Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story.
Additionally, he can look up to an oil painting by Nova Scotia-born artist Jack L. Gray called "Handliner." Painted in 1960, it's an image especially familiar to North Shore residents, depicting a Grand Banks fisherman in his dory.
"That's actually my favorite," says Moulton. It has an undeniably Marblehead sense to it.
Likewise, the other artwork was chosen to put voters from back home at ease if they should visit the office. In the reception area, for example, is Marshall Woodside Joyce's evocative 1982 oil on a board depicting a lobsterman pulling up his traps.
'Incredible Collection'\
Story's Washington sculpture was chosen after the museum offered Moutlon a painting of the father, Joseph Story. He rejected that as another portrait of a long-ago white male. Instead, he made a trip to the basement of the museum for a look at what was in storage. "They have such an incredible collection," he marveled. "Works they're not even able to display."\
"He was blown away by it," says Will Phippen, director of museum collection services. The congressman was encouraged to give feedback as the works were chosen.
A former U. S. Marine, Moulton had requested naval scenes, Phippen recalls. "But we didn't have anything of that type that was appropriate to loan." Despite the PEM's large collection, loans are complicated because some pieces are on display and some committed to visit other museums.
The museum made the initial offer to provide art for the congressman's office. Having its works showcased in Washington is a benefit to the museum, says Phippen, giving it a larger profile in a prestigious location. "A lot of people go in and out of that office."\
He has no record that former Congressman John Tierney of Salem ever displayed PEM's artwork, nor that of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, though Kennedy's office did feature some reproductions of the museum's works, pieces possibly purchased in the gift shop.
Also in the reception area is C. Myron Clark's 1910 oil painting "Mackerel Fishing Schooner." A work of oil on canvas in the staff office depicts the tall ship Fantee, the wind in her sails, as envisioned in the 19th century by William Formby Halsall.
Finally, just outside of Moulton's personal office is a seascape, oil on canvas, also by William Formby Halsall, completed in 1879, of Middle Brewster Island at the mouth of Boston Harbor.
Two of the works, the Lobsterman and the Handliner, were originally donated to the PEM by the estate of Marblehead benefactor Russell W. Knight.
Written by Alan Burke, Staff Writer\
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