A letter from Williamstown
I received a letter recently from Frank Wellcome, formerly of Westbrook, now living in Williamstown, Mass. He graduated from Westbrook High School in the class with my brother-in-law, H. Merrill Luthe, and Camille Huard, whose name later was Larry Brooks, the famous Broadway singer and actor. Larry had the lead in “Song of Norway” and in plays at Brunswick, too.
Frank had worked at the S. D. Warren Co. for many years, as did his wife, the former Fleta Chick. We were sorry that Fleta passed away last year. She and Frank were neighbors of ours in Mrs. Alexander Speirs’ apartment on Hawkes Street. We enjoyed them both, and their little son, Stevie. After they moved to Williamstown, they still subscribed to the American Journal, and now years later, Frank still gets the paper.
In his recent letter he mentioned having lunch in the retirement home where he lives with a 98-year-old art professor who was retired from the art department at Williams College. He has written several books, among them, “Museums of New England,” and he mentioned a museum that once had a Van Gogh painting prominently displayed.
That museum, as you know, is on the University of New England’s Westbrook College campus in Portland. Frank’s sister graduated from there. (I surely know that museum, I’m an alumna of Westbrook Junior College too, and visit the museum frequently.) Roberta Gray, reference librarian at the college’s library, was extremely helpful to me, Xeroxing clippings from the Portland Press Herald, New York Times, Washington Post, Down East and New Yorker. That Van Gogh painting had widespread coverage.
Down East magazine reported that John Whitney Payson built the museum on the Westbrook campus in 1976 in honor of his late mother, Joan Whitney Payson, New York philanthropist, a horsewoman, and owner of the New York Mets. He loaned his Van Gogh “Irises” painting to the school, and several other paintings.
The New Yorker reported that John Payson was seven-years-old when his mother bought “Irises.” Over the years, he had grown to like it more than any of the other paintings in his parents’ collection. His mother willed it to him when she died, along with 27 other paintings. He had placed them on permanent loan to the museum that he and his wife Nancy had built in her honor. She had bought “Irises” in 1947 for $80,000 and hung it over the fireplace in her living room.
Down East reported that Payson’s first wife was an alumna of Westbrook Junior College, which was part of the reason that he built the museum there. Payson also said that Westbrook is not an ivory-tower kind of college. “It’s very much a people’s museum,” he said, “I liked the location too, tucked in next door to my sleeping ancestors (in Evergreen Cemetery).”
The portrait had hung at the Westbrook College museum for 11 years, but Payson said it had simply become too expensive to keep. He said the unprecedented spiral in art prices, the changes in the tax law regarding donated art works and the cost of insurance forced him to reevaluate his plans.
“Irises” was painted in May 1889, five months after Van Gogh mutilated his right ear and one week after he entered an asylum in Saint Remy. The Washington Post reported that it is a glowing rendition of the garden outside the iron-barred window of his monastic cell. It shows a single white iris at the left of the painting, surrounded by many purple irises and green leaves. Van Gogh died in 1890.
All that talent – what a sad ending.
The painting was auctioned at Sotheby’s in New York in 1987 and went for $53.9 million. It is now in the Getty Museum in Malibu, Calif.
Westbrook College was fortunate to receive two substantial endowments from the Payson’s’, one which established an endowment for the college’s Women’s Writers Collection.
Rainy day music
I didn’t mind at all staying in all day last Saturday, a windy day with heavy rain. In the afternoon, I enjoyed the program on Maine Public Radio, highlights from historic broadcasts, called “Treasures from the Metropolitan Broadcasts.” We heard arias from Migart’s “Don Giovanni” and “Figaro;” Puccini’s “Tosca,” among many others, sung by Joan Sutherland, Ezio Pinza, Alexander Kipnis, George London, Marilyn Horne, and Bidu Sayaco.
After that concert, I watched a Lawrence Welk show on television, with beautiful Norma Zimmer, whose singing was thrilling; country music singer Charlie Pride; an accomplished tap dancer; a lady cellist, with violins accompanying her; and many pretty costumes.
Each week on Saturday, there is an exciting Welk show. It was my father’s favorite program, too.
RECIPE
This recipe is from the 25th anniversary cookbook of the Galloway School, in Atlanta, which both of our grandsons attended. We enjoyed visiting there. This recipe is timely for us Mainers, as our Maine shrimp are now on the market.
Shrimp on rice
1/2 of a small onion
1 tblsp. margarine
1 can cream of mushroom soup
2 tblsp. cooking sherry
1 small can sliced mushrooms
1-1/2 lb. cooked shrimp
2 cups cooked rice
1 can Chinese noodles
SautA?© onion in margarine. Combine soup, sherry, mushrooms, and shrimp. Refrigerate until serving time, if desired. Heat thoroughly. Serve over the rice. Top with noodles.
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