Anthony Thieme (American, 1888-1954) - Motif #1, Rockport Harbor

Signed ‘A Thieme’ bottom right; also located verso, oil on canvas
25 x 30 in. (63.5 x 76.2cm)

Provenance

Clarke Galleries, Stowe, Vermont.
Northeast Auctions, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, sale of August 21, 2016, lot 801.
Acquired directly from the above sale.
Private Collection, Rockport, Massachusetts.

Exhibition

“Sea, Shore & Land, the Lynn Beach Painters at Home and Abroad,” Lynn Museum & Historical Society, Lynn, Massachusetts, April 23-October 28, 2006. 

Lot Essay

Anthony Thieme, a prominent landscape and marine painter, was a leading figure of the Rockport School of American regional art, alongside artists like Aldro Hibbard, Emile Gruppe, and W. Lester Stevens. Born in Rotterdam in 1888, Thieme initially studied at the Academie of Fine Arts in Rotterdam and briefly at the Royal Academy in The Hague. He traveled extensively in Europe, often working as a stage designer.

At 22, Thieme immigrated to the United States and quickly found work as a stage designer at New York's Century Theater, designing sets for legendary dancer Anna Pavlova. Eventually settling in Boston he began shifting his career to focus on painting and etching. In 1929, Thieme married and moved to Rockport, Massachusetts, establishing the Thieme School of Art. His works were frequently exhibited at the Grand Central Art Galleries in New York. Despite his settled life in Rockport, Thieme continued to travel widely throughout Europe and South American, always painting en plein air.  Thieme was a full member of the American Watercolor Society, Art Alliance of America, the Salmagundi Club, as well as many other major institutions.