Stow Wengenroth

1906 - 1978

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Stow Wengenroth first came to Cape Ann in the early 1930s.  Over the next 40 years, he would go on to become one of the region's most respected print makers, producing over 340 lithographs, many of them inspired by the scenes he encountered in Gloucester and Rockport.  Of Cape Ann, Wengenroth wrote the following:

I love Cape Ann most of all for its quiet beauty...Seaward, five lighthouses [mark] the approaches to the Cape's various harbors.  The outer side of the land is hilly and the shore is rocky.  Inland the little Annisquam River wanders calmly and peacefully into the sea and, strictly speaking, makes the Cape an island.  Long stretches of flat land, broken by inlets and coves, add variety to the scene that has for years lured artists from all parts of the country. 

Wengenroth was a superb draftsman who received his training at the Art Students League and at the Grand Central School of Art, both in New York.  His career as a lithographer was launched in 1931 with an exhibition at the Macbeth Galleries, also in New York. In 1936, he published Making a Lithograph, an indepth study on the art of lithography.  Two years later he was elected an associate member of the National Academy of Design and in 1941 he was awarded full membership in the organization.  This 1936 lithograph, entitled Trees and Sky, is typical of Wengenroth's early works with its bold strong shapes and carefully rendered serene composition.

Stow Wengenroth became a year-round resident of Rockport in 1974 at the time of his marriage to his second wife, Harriet Matson, a former curator of the Rockport Art Association.  Near the end of his life, he turned to painting, working primarily in watercolor.  Over the years, Bob and Libby French assembled a collection of 20 lithographs by this well regarded artist.