Sold at Auction: John Whorf

(b.Winthrop, Massachusetts 1903; d. Provincetown, Massachusetts 1959) American painter. Born in Massachusetts, John Whorf’s family had a strong connection to Cape Cod as fishing captains, traders and shipbuilders and Whorf felt strongly drawn to the sea. His father was an artist and encouraged his son’s desire to study art. Whorf was fourteen when he went to Provincetown to study with artists known within the Provincetown, Cape Cod and Islands community such as Max Bohm, George Elmer Brown, Richard Miller and Charles W. Hawthorne.* He then studied in Boston at the St. Botolph Studio under Sherman Kidd and at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts School. In 1919 he went to France and continued his education at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, the Grande Chaumiere and the Academie Colarossi. While living in France he took the opportunity to travel to Spain, Portugal and Morocco. He was a competent oil painter, but after his travels in Europe he embraced the medium of watercolor and became a renowned watercolorist. In 1924, the Grace Horne Gallery in Boston gave Whorf his first solo exhibition. His work has been recognized with medals from the California Water Color Society and the Art Institute of Chicago and an honorary M.A. from Harvard University. (Credit: * Skinner, Inc Boston, American & European Paintings & Prints, September 12, 2008, lot 647)