Thieme’s compositions are infused with atmosphere, achieved through his sensitive handling of light and shadow. In The Net Menders, the artist presents a unique interpretation of Motif #1, capturing the famed structure from the perspective of the fishermen and dockhands working along Bradley Wharf. Aside from the gray form of Motif #2 at far left and the ships moored close to the pier, a curtain of fog obscures most of the background, drawing the viewer’s focus to the action of the men plying away at the tangle of nets. This vital task was essential to their livelihood, helping to put food on their tables and wages in their pockets, and Thieme’s painting serves as an excellent example of his talent for capturing the rugged beauty of the coastal town and its hardy inhabitants.

More information about this painting...

Although born in Rotterdam, Holland, Anthony Thieme is best remembered for his harbor scenes and townscapes of the Cape Ann region of Massachusetts. His interest in the ocean was cultivated while he was just a young boy attending a naval military school, sent there by his parents in an unsuccessful attempt to discourage his passion for art. In 1902, against his parents’ wishes, he began studying painting at the Académie of Fine Arts in Rotterdam, followed by the Royal Academy in The Hague, pursuing his growing interest in fine art. Thieme’s training continued in Germany in 1904, where he studied with German set designer George Hacker, and in Italy at the Scuola di Belli Arti, where he was influenced by architecture and scenery paintings. Moving to London, he sold several sketches there, affording him passage to America. 
Thieme immigrated to the United States at age 22 and worked as a set designer for the Century Theater Company in New York City. Unhappy with the energetic city’s glaring contrast to his life in Europe, he traveled south to Brazil, finding employment with a mural painter doing figural work. Several more nomadic years soon followed, during which Thieme worked on theatre sets in Paris and later returned to Italy, where he painted among the country’s hilly landscape and its cities and developed his oeuvre significantly. Thieme finally returned to America and in 1919 settled in Boston, where he put his design talents to use at the Copley Theater. In the early 20th century, Boston had all the best qualities of European cultural centers, and Thieme quickly fell in love with his adopted city. He acquired a studio in Copley Square, and the Grace Horne Galleries hosted Thieme’s first solo exhibition in 1928. In that same fortuitous year, he won a prize from the North Shore Arts Association for a landscape painting and soon after left the theatre world behind to dedicate his life to painting.

Provenance:

Collection of Robert C. Slack (in 1999)

Eventually to McDougall Fine Arts, Gloucester, Massachusetts

To private collection, Naples, Florida, 2015 to present

Inscription:

1. (top stretcher in black) Mending Nets by –(covered by black tape)
2. (left stretcher in pencil) Box #2
3. (top stretcher in pencil, below ‘M’ of Mending) 127
4. (top stretcher in pencil, below ‘ding’ of Mending) #95
5. (right stretcher in pencil) V-1377 / 30 x 36

Labels:

1. (stamp on left stretcher) 979
2. Illegible handwritten label on lower stretcher

Literature:

Curtis, Judith A., Anthony Thieme, 1888-1954 (Rockport, MA: Rockport Art Association, 1999), illus. p. 54, and captioned as being in the collection of Robert C. Slack