Author Description

For anyone who has spent time on an island, seduced by an islands' special charms, this book will be a reminder of Shakespeare's line in The Tempest: "The stuff that dreams are made on". Island as Muse explores the work of 50 visual artists and writers dating from the 19th century to the present who have made the Cuttyhunk Island their muse. William Shakespeare may have been the first person to make Cuttyhunk his muse when he wrote about a tempestuous and fog-enshrouded isle in his last play, The Tempest. Shakespeare shared the same patron, the Earl of Southampton, as the English explorer Bartholomew Gosnold, who spent three weeks on Cuttyhunk Island in 1602. It is possible that Shakespeare heard tales and descriptions of the flora and fauna of Cuttyhunk Island at the Earl's Court. Two centuries later, in 1858, artist Albert Bierstadt, made Cuttyhunk his muse in the dreamlike painting, Bartholomew Gosnold at Cuttyhunk. This fully illustrated book features paintings, watercolors, drawings, wood carvings, scrimshaw, shells, mosaics, ceramics, needlework and a selection of poems by Elizabeth Bishop, Isabelle Fiske Conant, and Jeffrey Harrison. Artists include Clifford A. Ashley, Tamalin Baumgarten, Albert Bierstadt, Robert Duff, Don J. Emery, Norman Fortier, Jean George, Charles H. Gifford, Robert S. Gifford, Charles E. Gruppé, Antonio Jacobsen, Mary Lindenberg, Harry A. Neyland, Manny Sarmento, and Wilfred Tilton. While the majority of the artwork is from the Cuttyhunk Historical Society collection, this book expands on the theme and includes art work from additional public and private collections and poems inspired by the islands. Island as Muse grew out of an exhibition held at the Cuttyhunk Historical Society in 2023 and 2024. All of the artists and writers either grew up on the islands, visited the islands or created subject matter inspired by the art, history, and culture of the Elizabeth Islands. Located off the coast of Massachusetts, the largest islands includ