David John Gue

Nantucket Beach

“Nantucket Beach” by David John Gue
United States, 1836-1917
Des Moines Women’s Club purchase, 1895.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, David John Gue followed his older brother out to the new state of Iowa in 1852 where they pioneered a farm. His brother, Benjamin Franklin Gue, soon embarked on a political career in which he helped establish Iowa State University and, remarkably for that time, insisted that the school allow women to enroll. David John also pursued other interests, becoming a lawyer and then working as a pharmacist in Fort Dodge. Not until he was in his 50s did, he begin to paint and, as in all professional avenues of his life, he was self-taught. Like many artists living in newly settled areas where there was no formal art instruction, he likely imitated famous paintings which he could have seen in prints that circulated out to the frontier or were reproduced in magazines. This painting suggests he looked particularly at Dutch seascape paintings.
Presumably in the 1880s, Gue returned to New York, where he specialized in marine scenes, such as Nantucket Beach. Most of his paintings were images of the sea with waves crashing along the shore, but here, he included a genre scene with three fishermen. The awkwardness in depicting the human figure is common in self-trained artists, who had little chance to learn to draw human anatomy. But, Gue shows his understanding of the underlying abstraction of artistic composition in other ways. He pushes all of the narrative elements to the right foreground, with a rounded grouping of figures alongside the X-shaped driftwood rack for drying nets. Then, the composition expands to an open view of the sea, conveying the vastness of the Atlantic Ocean.
Gue was a successful painter in New York, noted not only for his seascapes, but for his portraits as well, including one of President Ulysses S. Grant. Back in Iowa, he also found patrons, especially for his portraits, a number of which are in the State Historical Museum, including one of his famous brother. When the Des Moines Women’s Club purchased Nantucket Beach, perhaps directly from the artist himself, they recognized the talents of their fellow Iowan. However, after many decades, the painting was placed into storage, and its condition declined seriously. Realizing its value, the Hoyt Sherman Place Foundation recently had the painting restored, and it has been brought back to life.