Painting despite polio: Rockport's Pearson rose to prominence despite challenges

The indomitable will of the late Marguerite Pearson, a woman disabled by polio but who forged ahead with her art, will shine in a new show opening Friday with a public reception at the Rockport Art Association.

"Even today, Marguerite Pearson makes an ideal role model for anyone suffering from a physical challenge," said Judith Curtis, a writer and local art historian. "Her determined, feisty nature, combined with a talent for drawing, an innate sense of color and design, as well as a proclivity for hard work, helped her overcome the day-to-day obstacles of living with a disability."

In spite of the economic turmoil of the 1930s and the Depression, Pearson (1899-1978) was able to support herself as well as her parents through her art. Curtis, who wrote this exhibition's catalog, noted that Pearson was considered among the top 10 portrait artists in the nation at the time.

As a young woman, Pearson trained with some of the top artists of her time, including Frederick Bosley, Chase Emerson, and Harry Leith-Ross at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and later with Edmund Tarbell and Aldro Hibbard.

"Pearson received a thorough grounding in the principles of American Impressionism, which combined the high key palette of the Impressionists with the draftsmanship of the academics, to create a new school of thought in American painting," wrote Curtis. "She was a determined student who asked for neither sympathy nor special treatment, other than a helping hand when she needed to reach the fourth-floor studio on Newbury Street in Boston."

One Rockport woman remembers well the portrait painter.

When Alison Callahan was 13, Pearson painted her neighbor in a two-piece, blue full-length gown from the 1800s.

"I remember it was a skirt and a top that had all these hooks and eyes. Her studio was a room in her house on Marmion Way overlooking the ocean. It had a false staircase, and I was looking out at the sea as she painted. It was a beautiful place to pose," recalled Callahan.

The portrait of Callahan, titled "The School Girl," was part of the 11th Annual 10-Man Show, which ran from October to December at the Rockport Art Association in 1973. The painting was valued at $500, according to the show brochure published 38 years ago.

Callahan remembered how her young self marveled at Pearson's ability to paint despite her physical hardships, which began after she contracted polio around the age of 16.

"She painted in her wheelchair right in her living room. She had to hold her paintbrush in an awkward way because her wrist was a bit deformed," Callahan said. "But if I had to describe her in one adjective, it would be 'gracious.'"

At first Pearson used to summer in Rockport, then she designed a one-level home here. She moved to the seaside village full-time in 1941.

Callahan and her father, the late Dave Cameron, lived across the street.

"My father and I would get the newspaper for her every Sunday. It was part of our weekly routine, and my dad used to help by bringing her paintings to the art associations," Callahan said. "She and her caretaker always remembered us on our birthdays and Christmas."

This was typical of the relationships among numerous artists and their neighbors, many of whom would become models for the artists who lived throughout the island of Cape Ann.

Pearson painted a bride at the nearby Seaward Inn, which still delights the Rockport inn's guests and visitors. The bride was the sister of her father, the late Mary Alice Cameron.

In looking at Pearson's life overall, Curtis dubbed the new Rockport Art Association exhibition "Hell on Wheels."

"I thought it might catch people's attention and then, reading on, they would find that this very talented artist had to contend with numerous physical challenges," said Curtis. "I have been researching Marguerite Pearson's life for some years now and that's how I have come to see her. Determined, stubborn, and bound to a wheelchair, but she never let life get her down. Marguerite Pearson is still worthy of our attention as a role model for the upcoming artist, or someone trying to rise above their own physical challenge."

During her research, Curtis learned that Pearson had a benevolent side from the start. At age 6, Pearson was one of three girls who organized a garden fete to help raise money for victims of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. As an adult, the artist continued to influence others and was sought out as a teacher and mentor.

Pearson was an active member of numerous art organizations, most notably the Rockport and North Shore arts associations, and the Boston Art Club.

Curtis noted that Pearson also was an accomplished still life painter and executioner of floral subjects in various media, such as crayon, oil, and watercolor.

"Notwithstanding the difficulty of getting to outdoor locations, Pearson loved painting the landscape, and figures out of doors, as well as yacht racing viewed from Bearskin Neck, overlooking Rockport Harbor, and nudes in sun-dappled gardens, in addition to views of New Hampshire and Maine from travels further afield," wrote Curtis in the catalog.

Pearson more than made her mark in the American art world, said Curtis, citing a Boston art critique of a 1924 Somerville exhibition of her work. A. J. Philpott wrote: "Her paintings are the work of a young woman of exceptional talent. The fact that she has had to battle against great odds to achieve the place she has achieved in the art world gives the pictures an added interest for many people familiar with that battle. But aside from that, the pictures, judged by the highest art standards, require no adventitious sentiment to bolster them up. For these are the works of a rare genius — of one who already ranks high and is destined to achieve unusual distinction in the art world."

Curtis is eager for residents of modern times to understand Pearson's contribution to the American art world.

"She is as relevant as ever. She saw numerous changes in fads and fashions, from the 1913 Armory Show in New York, which influenced a generation of modern painters, through 'Sanity in Art,' a revivalist group striving to bring back the great traditions of draftsmanship and content," Curtis said. During her lifetime Pearson also saw the experimentation and pop art of the 1960s and 1970s.

"Pearson can still provide us today with a dynamic example of what can be accomplished with determination, tenacity and the will to succeed," Curtis said. "Her story and art remain an inspiration for young and old even in the 21st century."

A 30-page, full color, soft cover catalog, "Marguerite S. Pearson: A Point of View," by Judith A. Curtis, based on Pearson's writings, is available in conjunction with this exhibition.

After its run at the Rockport Art Association, this show will be exhibited from Sept. 1 to 25 at The Guild of Boston Artists at 162 Newbury St. in Boston.

Gail McCarthy may be contacted at 978-283-7000 x3445 or gmccarthy@gloucestertimes.com.

If you go

Who and what: "Marguerite Pearson — Hell on Wheels," an art exhibition.

Where: Rockport Art Association, 12 Main St. in Rockport

When: Opens Friday, July 22, with a free opening reception from 6 to 8 p.m. The show runs through Aug. 23.

Details: A number of special events are planned to coincide with this show: a portrait demonstration by Jude Abbe, a gallery walk with Mary Minifie and a panel discussion on Pearson's work and her contemporaries. For more information, call 978-546-6604.

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