The story of elegant Bostonians has been told many times, notably by John Marquand in The Late George Apley and Cleveland Amory in The Proper Bostonians. Now D. Roger Howlett writes about
Boston Brahmin painter Gertrude Beals Bourne (1868-1962). Lavishly illustrated with color reproductions of her beautiful Impressionist watercolors of still life, seascapes, and paintings of
flowers and gardens, the book chronicles the artist's life, times, and artistic style.
Born on Beacon Hill, Bourne grew up in the Back Bay and New York and began her career as a painter in the 1890s. In 1904 she married the architect Frank A. Bourne, and the couple moved to 130
Mount Vernon Street-known as "Sunflower Castle." Frank helped to found the Beacon Hill Association, Gertrude founded the Beacon Hill Garden Club, and the couple is credited with re-gentrifying
Beacon Hill in the first two decades of the twentieth century. Among their friends were artists Laura Coombs Hills, Maurice Prendergast, his brother Charles Prendergast, and landscape architect
Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. After Frank A. Bourne died in 1936, Gertrude continued to paint and exhibit until shortly before her death in 1962. Her work was shown at such venues as the Boston
Art Club, the New York Watercolor Club, the American Watercolor Society, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and the National Gallery of Art.
This long-overdue portrait of a significant American Impressionist painter will appeal to art historians and collectors, as well as those interested in Boston history.
