Object of the Month: Ashley Bryan's painting, "Soli Deo Gloria, [Skowhegan]"

Demonstrating the important place that the visual arts have played in Maine’s two hundred year history, At First Light: Two Centuries of Artists in Maine provides an intriguing overview of the ways in which numerous artists have captured the state’s natural beauty. The show simultaneously draws attention to the opportunities that have drawn artists to this region.

Raised in New York by parents who hailed from the island nation of Antigua, Ashley Bryan (1923–2022) came to Maine as part of the first class at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 1946. Spruce, Soli Deo Gloria (Skowhegan), an ethereal painting capturing the profound impression made upon him by the profusion of conifers he encountered in the rustic setting, now hangs in the exhibition. Correspondence from Bryan’s first summer in Skowhegan testifies to his fascination with Maine’s majestic trees. Moved by their scale and their form, Bryan even told a friend that he prepared a “rather overlong canvas” to convey their height. The same letter finds the artist reflecting upon “the divine vision of the artist.”

While it is tempting in view of such ruminations to conclude that Spruce, Soli Deo Gloria (Skowhegan) was created during Bryan’s first sojourn in Maine, further evidence suggests that the painting was more likely made a decade later, when he returned to Skowhegan after winning a commission to paint one of the murals in the South Solon Meeting House in 1956. During the interval, Bryan had returned to France—where he had served in World War II—having completed his degree at Cooper Union as well as a degree in Philosophy at Columbia University. While in Aix-en-Provence in 1950, he had attended performances by Pablo Casals of Bach’s music at the festival the maestro organized in Prades. Bryan obtained permission to sketch the musicians in rehearsal, and it was this experience that he said resulted in his, “learning the rhythm of his hand.”

Just such a rhythm is suggested by the fluid brushstrokes of Spruce, Soli Deo Gloria (Skowhegan) that express artist’s continued reverence for the Maine landscape. Further conveying the intensity of his response, Bryan incorporated into his composition the words “Soli Deo Gloria/ In Excelsis Deo,” or “To God alone be the Glory/Glory in the highest to God.” In adding this phrase, Bryan nodded to Bach, who himself felt moved to add the moniker SDG to every one of his compositions. Bryan would in turn sign his South Solon Meeting House mural with this refrain.

The artist’s impulse to build the Latin inscription into his painting points to his love of words and language. Deeply engaged with poetry, including that of Rainer Marie Rilke and Christina Rossetti, Bryan would later collaborate with Nikki Giovanni on The Sun is So Quiet (Macmillan, 1996) and I am Loved (Simon & Schuster, 2018), among the children’s books for which he has become celebrated.

Also evident in Spruce, Soli Deo Gloria (Skowhegan), is, of course, Bryan’s profound spirituality, a quality that would emerge both in artworks celebrating his Christianity as well as in his dedication to young people, whose curiosity, wonder, and spontaneity inspired the artist over a lifetime, providing a metaphor for creative inspiration itself, inspiring him to implore his audiences: “never lose the child within you.” Indeed, the perpetual sense of youthful discovery permeates the artist’s work as a whole, which is characterized by a radical radiates the poignant intersection of awe and personal reflection. As Bryan observed: “I’ve learned simply the importance of questioning. Of always asking questions of yourself and everything and evaluating and keeping that sense of being open. … Who am I? Where do I come from? What am I here for? That’s endless.”

The BCMA is deeply grateful to the Ashley Bryan Center for its gift of this work and eight other paintings by Bryan. More of Bryan’s work can now be enjoyed at the Farnsworth Museum in its exhibition, Ashley Bryan: Beauty in Return, on view until December 31st. We offer a special thanks to Nichols Clark for his generosity in sharing his research on and insights into Spruce, Soli Deo Gloria (Skowhegan), 1956 and Bryan’s murals in the South Solon Meeting House, including correspondence from 1946 and 1956 related to the artist’s experience at Skowhegan.

 

Anne Collins Goodyear
Co-Director, Bowdoin College Museum of Art