Hezekiah Anthony Dyer

From my review of Hezekiah Anthony Dyer at Bert Gallery:

Back in 1928, a Providence Journal headline dubbed painter Hezekiah Anthony Dyer a "militant anti-Modernist." Modern art was just about showing off, he said. It was fueled by the usual fad for whatever's new — and the money that can be made off it. He was a traditionalist. He wasn't impressed.

Dyer's thing was watercolors and gouaches of romantic fairy tale country cottages, snowy mountain lakes, and ruins of old stone arches and doorways, as demonstrated by 25 of his works in the exhibit "Old World Charm: Watercolors by H.A. Dyer" at Bert Gallery (540 South Water Street, Providence, through March 6).

You can understand why tradition would be his thing. Dyer (1872-1943) was born in Providence. His dad and granddad were Rhode Island governors. He studied at Brown and RISD and spent part of most of his years in Europe (Belgium, France, England, Switzerland, Italy) painting realist landscapes. He was president of the Providence Art Club from 1905 to 1914 and then president of the Republican Club of Rhode Island from 1916 to 1919.

Read the rest here.

“Old World Charm: Watercolors by H.A. Dyer (1872-1943),” Bert Gallery, 540 S. Water St., Providence, Jan. 6 to March 6, 2009.