Walter Lofthouse Dean

Walter Lofthouse Dean (June 4, 1854 – March 13, 1912) was an American marine painter, commodore of the Boston Yacht Club and Vice President of the Boston Art Club. Dean was one of the most prominent members in Boston, Massachusetts of the Paint and Clay Club, the Art Club, the Society of Water Color Painters,

Dean was also one of first artists to work primarily from Gloucester, Massachusetts, where he worked for 25 summers from a large studio on Rocky Neck, and later settled year round. While Dean is primarily known for marine paintings from the Boston region, he also created a wide-range of art from his travels to France, the Netherlands, Italy, Belgium, England, Canada and Puerto Rico.

Dean was a well recognized artist while he was alive and was listed in the 1896 Men of Progress, the 1903 Men of Massachusetts, along with Who's Who in American Art. His canvases were seen in most of the important general exhibitions for more than a quarter century. Dean's largest painting, Peace (see below: Peace), depicting several units of the White Squadron in Boston harbor, is owned by the US Government and was exhibited at the Chicago World's Fair in May–October 1893.

Walter Lofthouse Dean died at his home in Gloucester, Massachusetts, on March 13, 1912.

Family Walter Lofthouse Dean was born on June 4, 1854, in Lowell, Massachusetts, in Middlesex County. He was the third son of the Honorable Benjamin Dean and Mary Ann (French) Dean, who were related to several of the best-known families of the region. Walter Dean's grandparents, Benjamin Dean and Alice Lofthouse Dean, of Clitheroe, England, moved to the United States of America in 1829, when Benjamin, an engraver and designer, entered the employ of the Merrimack Print Works.

Dean's father, Benjamin Dean was born in Clitheroe, England in 1824, and became a prominent Boston lawyer, a US Congressman and a 33-degree Mason who served as grand master of the Grand Commandery of the United States from 1880 to 1883. His mother, Mary Ann French, was born to Josiah Bowers French, a bank president and former Mayor of Lowell, and his wife, Mary Anne Stevens of Billerica, Massachusetts.

Dean had three brothers and two sisters. He never knew his oldest brother, Josiah French Dean, who died before the age of two. His second oldest brother, Benjamin Wheelock Dean, was a contractor who married Annie Page of South Boston. His younger sister, Clitheroe, was born in South Boston and married Charles L. James of Brookline. His youngest brother, Josiah Stevens Dean married May Lillian Smith in 1888 and became a prominent Boston lawyer and judge who died in 1941. Dean's youngest sister, Mary Dean, was born in Lowell and married Walter Tufts.

Dean attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's School of Architecture in 1873, but left MIT to study the fine arts at the Massachusetts State Normal Art School (now known as Mass College of Art & Design) where his brother's father-in-law, Walter Smith (art educator), was co-founder and Principal. While a student at the Normal Art School, Dean was an instructor at the Boston Art Academy. Upon graduating a four year program in three years from the Normal Art School, Dean became an instructor at Purdue University, in Lafayette, Indiana, in 1876. In 1877, Dean returned to Boston to become a teacher of drawing at the Boston Free Evening Drawing School. in 1881 Dean returned to Boston, where he studied painting under the direction of , a pupil of Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot and Charles-François Daubigny. This master awakened a deeper insight into the soul of things, and helped him to get a better idea of composition, atmosphere, perspective, light and shade. He then went on to Paris, France to study at the Académie Julian with Jules-Joseph Lefebvre and Gustave Boulanger. These were two of the most influential art instructors in the world at that time. It is apparent that Dean enjoyed Europe, where he traveled primarily along the coastlines of France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy and England.

An 1895 article in the Boston Sunday Journal had the following to say about Peace. Peace is perhaps the best known marine work of an American artist. It pleased the public as soon as it was shown [to] them, for it was almost the first prominent attempt made to introduce modern war ships into real art. When the North Atlantic squadron came into Boston Harbor a few years ago, Mr. Dean anchored his yacht alongside the white war ships, and secured studies for his painting. — Mahlstick, May 12, 1895

The Seiners

Dean was proficient in painting fisherman and the sea. With two paintings he was able to capture fisherman both going out to their vessels with nets and returning back to port. The “Gloucester Seiners”, while about half the size of “The Seiners’ Return” is still 30 inches by 44 inches and was exhibited at the Boston Art Club in 1889, where it was described as “fresh, clear and airy”.

It was noted in the New England Magazine in 1893 that "of the paintings presented at the Chicago World’s Fair, it is noted that "The Seiners' Return" affords the most satisfactory idea of Dean’s abilities and tendencies. It is pitched in a pleasant, clear, high key of color, has plenty of atmosphere and space, is animated and full of movement. Mr. Dean is a very clever marine painter, and is thoroughly familiar with all the details of this special province of art, in which American painters have won so many laurels."

It was later noted in the Boston Sunday Journal in 1895 that “The Seiners’ Return, a canvas four feet high and six feet long and shows the artist’s talent in figure painting, though in a less degree than his “Market Boat at Capri” which has 18 large men, women and children in the foreground. This painting represents the return of fishermen to their vessels. They are in their tender, with their nets aboard. It is in the late afternoon, there is an evening glow in the sky, and the picture has a good deal of color and feeling." It is a companion piece to the Gloucester Seiners 1888 which represents the start to the nets. then in the 18th triennial Exhibition of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association, Boston, October and November 1892, and again in 1893 at the Chicago World’s Fair.

Selected works

Yacht Tempest (1881) Whistler House Museum of Art The Sardine Fleet, Concarneau (1882) exhibited at William & Everett Gallery, 1883 A Summer Day on the Dutch Shore (1883) exhibited at Poland Spring Gallery, 1898 On Dutch Sands (ca 1883) Sotheby's New York, 1980 At the Fountain, Capri (ca 1884) Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association, 1884 Market Boat. Capri (ca 1884) Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association, 1884 North Sea Fisherman off a Lee Shore (ca 1885) Whistler House Museum of Art North Sea Fishermen Racing Home (ca 1888) Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association, 1890 The Gloucester Seiners (1888) exhibited at Boston Art Club, 1889 View of Gloucester Harbor (ca 1890) Cape Ann Museum

Peace (1891) Cannon House Office Building The Seiners Return (1892) exhibited at Chicago World's Fair, 1893 A Fine Catch (1893) Whistler House Museum of Art Naval Review New York (1893) Whistler House Museum of Art US Fleet at Hampton Roads (1893) Whistler House Museum of Art An October Catch (1894) exhibited at the Boston Art Club, 1894 Well Rewarded (1894) exhibited at American Water Color Society, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1894 Ton Catcher, Bay of Biscay (1895) exhibited at American Water Color Society, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1895 Bay of Naples (1896) exhibited at American Water Color Society, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1896 U.S.S. Enterprise (ca 1896) exhibited at Paint and Clay Club, 1896 U.S.S Gunboat Gloucester, at Santiago (1898) exhibited at Worcester Art Club, 1905 Moonrise (1900) exhibited at Pittsburgh International Exhibition, 1900 On the Deep Sea (1901) Farnsworth Art Museum Ballast Haulers (ca 1903), Bronze Medal at the 1904 Saint Louis Exposition, STOLEN from Lowell General Hospital, 1972 Gloucester Harbor (1906) Sheldon Museum of Art Fog Off Gloucester (ca 1906) New Britain Museum of American Art Harbor Cove (1908), exhibited at Boston Art Club, 1908