Artist: Stephen Macomber (1894-1983). Title Westerly Shoreline, 1966. Medium: charcoal on paper. Signed and dated lower right. Dimensions: 21 1/2" x 27 1/2". Matted and framed under glass: 31 1/2" x 37 1/2". Provenance: from the artist's estate. Stephen Macomber was a gifted Rhode Island painter and draftsman whose long association with Westerly and the southern Rhode Island landscape provided him with a lifetime of subjects. His charcoal drawings reveal an especially important side of his talent. A master draftsman, Macomber was entrusted with teaching the freshman foundation drawing class at the Rhode Island School of Design, where his ability to understand form, structure, light, and shadow made him particularly well suited to introducing young artists to the fundamentals of drawing.Macomber’s atmospheric landscapes also had a more personal origin. A veteran of World War I, he had been gassed during his military service, an experience that continued to affect his health. Unable to sleep, he often took nocturnal walks through the countryside around Westerly. The quiet roads, darkened trees, moonlight, and shifting shadows he encountered became lasting sources of inspiration for his art.In his Westerly charcoal works, Macomber’s skill as a draftsman and his intimate knowledge of the landscape come together. With little more than black, white, and shades of gray, he could transform a familiar Rhode Island scene into something quiet, atmospheric, and distinctly his own.

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