Name/Title
Home, Downeast: Wood Engravings of Pauline Winchester Inman | Introduction to Exhibition | 2024Description
Home, Downeast: Wood Engravings of Pauline Winchester Inman
Printmaker and illustrator Pauline “Polly” Winchester Inman (1904–1990) was born in Chicago, Illinois and studied art history at Smith College. While teaching in New York after college, Pauline attended art classes at the Art Students League, Parsons School of Design, and the New School for Social Research where she developed her artistic specialization in wood engraving under the tutelage of successful printmaker Allen Lewis (1873–1957). Invented in eighteenth- century England, wood engraving is a relief printing technique in which the graver incises the endgrain of a block of hardwood, carving against the wood grain to create a highly detailed impression. Traditionally used to create replicable illustrations in publications and periodicals, wood engraving had a resurgence as a creative artform in the early twentieth century.
Beginning in the 1930s, Pauline spent over thirty summers in South Addison along the coast of Washington County, Maine where she gained inspiration for the majority of her artwork. Her brother, John H. Winchester reported that she spent her summers sketching and taking photographs of subjects throughout Washington County, as she and her husband “toured the area far and wide.” She used her source material as inspiration to create wood engravings during winters in Connecticut.
Although locals might describe Pauline as “from away,” she thoughtfully captured the feeling of the quiet moments of daily life in Washington County–both in tranquility and in exhaustion–and the esteem she held for the people, places, and happenings of Downeast Maine. This exhibition brings together a selection of Pauline’s Maine prints that illustrate three aspects of Washington County’s identity: Industry–difficult, unforgiving occupations connected to cultivating and harnessing natural resources; Community–simple pleasures of communing with loved ones; and Topography–natural and built environments that serve as the settings of our stories.
All objects in this exhibition were generously donated to
the Tides Institute & Museum of Art by Eugene and Marilyn Ostreicher.
This exhibition was prepared by Honor Wilkinson, TIMA Consulting Curator.