THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 20, 1995 TAG: 9507190121
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY JOAN C. STANUS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 158 lines
IMAGINE. IT IS NORFOLK in 1887.
Dusk is just beginning to envelop Market Square on the downtown waterfront.
The gas street lights cast a warm, amber glow about the nearly deserted streets that lead to the waterfront. A well-dressed Victorian couple takes a leisurely stroll past empty dry-goods shops, ship chandleries, sail lofts, saloons and restaurants. A single farmer remains among the stalls of the open-air marketplace building to tidy up after a busy day of selling produce; nearby, on the street, a few shop merchants and workmen load horse-drawn wagons and fill carts with wares.
At the dock, a double-ended ferry waits to shuttle passengers back across the Elizabeth River to the fashionable neighborhood of Berkley. Behind her, chugging across the river, the side-wheeled steamer Luray carries a load of passengers toward nearby Town Point. Just off the Luray's port side is the fully rigged English ship, the Carnarvonshire, being towed into the harbor to receive a load of goods that she'll soon carry back across the Atlantic Ocean.
It's a scene right out of Norfolk's historic past, a colorful snapshot of the glory days of sail and steam on the Chesapeake Bay.
Yet, until recently, no tangible vision of Norfolk's bustling waterfront near Market Square during the late 19th century has ever existed. In 1888, the market building, which was situated where the Omni International Hotel sits today, was disassembled and moved to City Hall Avenue.
But John Barber, a nationally known maritime artist dedicated to capturing the vanishing beauty of the Chesapeake Bay, finally has given historians and Norfolk residents a breathtaking look into their past with his recently completed oil painting titled ``Old Norfolk Evening.'' The work captures Market Square, looking across the Elizabeth River toward Portsmouth in 1887.
``I've never seen anything quite so beautiful,'' said Amy Yarsinske, a Norfolk historian who helped Barber with historical research. ``It captures so much warmth of what was Market Square and a life in Norfolk that's now gone.''
As for the work's historical integrity, Yarsinske said: ``He's right on the money on that. It's as close to what it was like as we can get today.''
Barber began work on the Norfolk project last fall after having completed three other oil paintings as part of a series of historic Bay seaports. During the last few years, Barber has re-created the harbors of Annapolis in 1900, Baltimore in 1897 and Alexandria in 1885.
Norfolk was the logical next step.
``From the beginning I knew I would do Norfolk because it was and still is one of the most important harbors on the East Coast and a premier port on the Chesapeake Bay,'' explained Barber, a Richmond-based artist. ``I knew I needed to do it by virtue of its importance to the country.''
The dilemma was in selecting an appropriate waterfront view and time period representative of the character of the city and its seaport.
Known for being meticulous in his historic details, Barber enlisted Yarsinske's help as a ``guide through the Norfolk archives.''
The two eventually narrowed the choice down to two spots: Market Square in 1887 and Town Point in 1815. After much research, they decided on Market Square.
``Market Square presented a more interesting view than Town Point, which was entirely a commercial area,'' Yarsinske said. ``In Market Square, there were a lot more comings and goings of interesting people. Passengers were catching the ferries from there to Berkley and Portsmouth until 1 or 2 in the morning. There were vendor carts ... and coffee houses, ship chandlers and other tradesmen.''
``For the residents, the market was the hub of activity,'' Barber added. ``There was just a lot of color and activity there.''
Barber selected the time frame of the 1880s so that he could include a number of different types of vessels on the waterfront. During his 16-year career of painting scenes of the Chesapeake Bay, the artist has become renowned for his detailed portraits of Bay vessels, particularly the skipjacks.
After combing through stacks of old newspaper clippings at the Mariners' Museum, Barber found a notice in the spring 1887 shipping news of the arrival of a fully rigged English sailing vessel, called the Carnarvonshire. He also discovered an arrival notice of the passenger steamer, the Luray, in the shipping news.
Meanwhile, Yarsinske was researching old photographs, street plats, building permits, city directories, sand-born maps and other documents in an effort to re-create Market Square.
``It was a challenge,'' she said. ``He made me think of ways of using history I'd never considered before.''
After completing the intensive research, Barber spent another 2 1/2 months, seven days a week, painting his Norfolk scene. He finished in the spring.
``I still have a headache,'' he joked a few months after its completion. ``This was a major piece of my life. It's like trying to work one of those Rubik's Cubes. In your mind, you have a loose picture of what you want to do, but after looking at etchings and maps, you start to come up with more pieces of the puzzle. The more research we did, the more that was required. At some point, you have to say, `I've taken it as far as I can.' But there's always some speculation.''
Now that the Norfolk painting is complete, Barber plans to spend the summer aboard his 32-foot Grand Banks trawler, which doubles as a floating studio, to paint other Bay locations. Eventually, he plans to paint more historic Bay ports for his series.
``I keep yearning for something we've lost,'' he explained.
Since quitting a comfortable career in commercial art 16 years ago, Barber has devoted himself to re-creating the Chesapeake and its vanishing culture. Initially, he worried about whether he could earn a living to support his family. But work of this Danville native struck a chord with art lovers, the public and Bay watermen almost from the start. In 1985, his work caught the attention of officials at the National Geographic Society, which commissioned him to create an original oil painting for then-President Ronald Reagan in honor of the society's 20th anniversary of televised programming.
But Barber is not an artist who lives in a cloistered world of paint, easels and palettes. He is also committed to preserving the Bay. He's a member of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's board of trustees and has received a number of prestigious national awards for his conservation efforts. Through donations of his artwork and copyrights, Barber has helped raise nearly a half-million dollars for various non-profit conservation groups. MEMO: HOW TO GET A COPY
Prints of John Barber's oil painting ``Old Norfolk Evening'' are
available locally at Imperial Gallery and Frame Shop, located at 540
Taldan Ave. in Virginia Beach.
Standard prints cost $195 each. Only 950 are being made.
Remarked prints, signed and numbered by the artist, cost $485. There
are only 75 of those. Typically, Barber's prints sell out quickly.
The original painting and sketches are on display at The Barber
Gallery, located at 5812 1/2 Grove Ave. in Richmond. The painting will
be premiered in Norfolk at a reception and benefit set for Sept. 8 at
the Willoughby-Baylor House downtown.
Eventually, Barber plans to sell the painting. His oil pieces command
substantial prices, well into the tens of thousands of dollars.
Amy Yarsinske, a Norfolk historian, says efforts are under way to try
and keep the painting in the Norfolk area.
ILLUSTRATION: [Cover]
"Old Norfolk Evening"
A LOOK AT SOME OF BARBER'S OTHER WORKS
``Old Town Alexandria by Moonlight,'' a view from King Street circa
1885.
``Morning Arrival at Baltimore,'' a view from the Inner Harbor circa
1897.
``Sunrise over Mobjack Bay,'' the buy-boat East Hampton heading
out.
``Autumn Morning,'' crabbing on Dymer Creek.
John Barber is a nationally known maritime artist.
John Barber often paints aboard his floating studio, the trawler
``Albatross.''
Barber, a nationally known artist who is based in Richmond, began
work on ``Old Norfolk Evening'' last fall and completed it this past
spring.
by CNB