After Shapleigh’s 1870 marriage to Mary A. Studley, who hailed from the Cohasset-Scituate area, the coves and beaches of the South Shore of Massachusetts came to feature prominently in his work. These paintings were rendered with the same attention to detail and interest in capturing the inherent charm of the region, whether depicting a sandy coastline or an interior scene of a barn or kitchen, as seen in Old Kitchen in Duxbury, Massachusetts. Viewing this canvas, one is immediately absorbed with Shapleigh’s meticulous rendering of the various objects arranged in the modest dwelling, from the momentarily vacant chairs facing the hearth to the plates and bric-a-brac lining the shelves. The fire glows in the fireplace, providing a warm napping spot for the cat, and our attention is soon drawn to the pair of geese and bit of coastline just beyond the open door, as if the homeowner has stepped away briefly to tend to something. Shapleigh’s interiors were undoubtedly inspired by his own appreciation for antiques, a quality noted by fellow artist Benjamin Champney in his 1900 autobiography: “[Shapleigh] has a natural love for the surroundings, of the furniture of past days, the quaint old bits our grandfather delighted in, and knows how to select what is most artistic and beautiful.” 

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In addition to selling his landscapes directly to tourists in the White Mountains, Shapleigh exhibited at the Boston Art Club and at New York’s National Academy of Design, and today his work can be found at the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine, the New Britain Museum of American Art in Connecticut, the New Hampshire Historical Society in Concord, and the Hood Museum at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. 

Provenance:

Private collection, Carlisle, Massachusetts

To Vose Galleries, Boston, inventory no. 32272, December 1997

To collection of Abbot W. and Marcia L. Vose, Duxbury, Massachusetts, March 1998 to present

Inscription:

(verso of canvas, visible through wax lining) Old Kitchen in Duxbury, Mass / by / F. H. Shapleigh

Labels:

1. (left stretcher) Frost & Adams label
2. Previous Vose Galleries label, inventory no. 32272