Lot 240, Auction 4/3/2026: Carroll Thayer Berry, Portland Head Lighthouse & Photos

$455.00

In stock

Carroll Thayer Berry (American, 1886-1978). “Portland Head Light” color linocut, n.d. Hand-signed and dated beneath plate. Accompanied by two black and white photographs. In “Portland Head Light,” Carroll Thayer Berry presents Maine’s iconic lighthouse rising with quiet authority above rocky cliffs and curling surf, distilling one of New England’s most recognized coastal landmarks into a composition of bold shapes and harmonious color. The tall white tower stands against a pale sky, flanked by low keeper’s houses, while the sea below rolls in stylized bands of blue and cream. The simplified forms of rock and water reflect Berry’s mastery of relief printmaking, where carved linoleum blocks yield crisp contours and flat planes that emphasize design over detail. The palette is restrained yet luminous – soft blues, muted greens, and sandy tones evoke the clarity of coastal light without excessive ornament. Size of linocut: 9″ W x 14″ H (22.9 cm x 35.6 cm); of paper: 13.25″ W x 19.25″ H (33.7 cm x 48.9 cm)

Berry’s approach, honed through decades of wood and linoleum block printing in his Rockport studio, favors strong silhouettes and balanced geometry. Here, the lighthouse becomes both architectural landmark and graphic emblem, anchored firmly against the restless Atlantic.

Accompanying the print are two black and white photographs. One appears to show a harbor scene with clustered buildings and boats along the shoreline, while the other captures a close view of figures aboard a vessel, offering documentary glimpses of maritime life. Though secondary to the linocut, they provide contextual echoes of the working coast that so often informed Berry’s imagery. Together, the materials underscore Berry’s sustained engagement with Maine’s seacoast, where structure, sea, and sky are reduced to their essential forms and rendered with clarity, restraint, and enduring coastal character.

About the artist: Carroll Thayer Berry (September 4, 1886 – January 20, 1978) was an American artist closely identified with the character and coastline of New England, particularly Maine. Born in New Gloucester to a dairy farming family, he initially pursued engineering, studying at the University of Michigan before working as a mechanical draftsman. His career shifted after a 1910 assignment to Panama during construction of the Panama Canal. Following illness and a return to the United States, he began studying at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and was later commissioned to paint murals documenting the canal project.

By 1915 Berry was working in New York as a commercial artist. When the United States entered World War I, he volunteered and became one of the first officers assigned to the American Camouflage Corps, serving in France near the war’s end. Afterward he settled in Chicago, designing office interiors, before returning to Maine during the Depression. In Wiscasset, and later Rockport, he became a central figure in the region’s artistic community.

Berry was also commissioned during World War II to document shipbuilding at Bath Iron Works, producing paintings that recorded the intensity of wartime production. In Rockport he established a studio equipped with a nineteenth century printing press, where he refined his skills in wood engraving, woodcut, and linoleum block printing. His bold relief prints, often issued in multiple color editions, became especially popular.

Across a career that spanned decades, Berry moved from early experimentation in oil and linocut to the distinctive wood engravings for which he is best known, and later explored geometric principles inspired by dynamic symmetry. He died in 1978 at age ninety, leaving behind a body of work that remains emblematic of Maine’s landscape and coastal life.

Condition: Photographs retain shape from having been previously rolled and display discoloring to paper. Indecipherable note on verso of one photograph. Print has creasing to two corners, but is otherwise in overall excellent condition. Hand-signed and dated beneath plate.

Provenance: private Boulder, Colorado, USA collection

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