BRIDGEPORT — The Chicago Maritime Museum is debuting two temporary exhibits next week, including five oil paintings of the Chicago River likely made by artist James Bolivar Needham.
Needham, a Black painter who lived from 1850 to 1931 and moved to Chicago around 1867, seemed to have found beauty in the Chicago River at a time when it was so polluted that most artists steered clear of the subject matter.
The Chicago Maritime Museum acquired five paintings thought to be Needham’s work this December, when Great Lakes sailor and lifelong Chicagoan Philip R. May donated an assortment of maritime-related art and artifacts. The Philip R. May Collection, as well as a second exhibit on the history and design of the canoe, will open at the museum Feb. 22.
Visitors to the museum at the Bridgeport Art Center, 1200 W. 35th St., can attend a curated tour of both new exhibits at 11 a.m. on opening day. The tour is free with admission.
The Philip R. May Collection includes 14 items and will be displayed with a 15th from another donation, said Madeline Crispell, Chicago Maritime Museum curator. They include artifacts like a diorama of a 19th century British ship, as well as the Chicago River paintings, which were originally unattributed until Crispell provisionally identified them as Needham’s.
Even before figuring out who the artist probably was, Crispell was immediately drawn to the paintings, she said.
“I’ve seen a lot of art of the Chicago River and [these paintings] didn’t look like anything I had seen before,” she said. “If you go close to the water, the way he draws ripples and reflections, the way he paints smoke, it’s very much like getting up close to a Monet painting and looking into the water lilies.”
Each work features ships on the river under dull skies; Chicago’s silhouette appears in the background. Crispell said she believes the Impressionistic paintings were made “plein air,” meaning Needham likely painted them on location, translating the scenes he saw on the river onto his canvas.
James Bolivar Needham was born in Chatham, Ontario, at one of the ends of the Underground Railroad. His middle name Bolivar — in honor of Simón Bolívar, who led the effort to free much of South America from Spanish rule — may have reflected his parents’ hopes for abolition. Not much else is known about his early life or family history, Crispell said.
At 14, Needham became a deckhand on ships sailing the Great Lakes, she said. He moved to Chicago when he was about 17. Once here, he started painting small oil paintings of the river, typically making his art on canvas mounted on pieces of shipping crates.
“This is a person whose entire life has been defined by the waterways: that his parents may have led to freedom on, that he worked as a teenager as a deckhand on, and then later in life that he spent his days painting,” Crispell said.
Untitled painting of the Chicago River likely made by artist James Bolivar Needham. Credit: Provided/Madeline Crispell
Those details of his work also helped Crispell identify Needham as the probable artist of the five donated paintings. One of the pieces is framed so that viewers can see the original wood panel — which is clearly shiplap planked wood with little nails, the kind of material that would have been used in a 19th century shipping crate.
Crispell also learned recently Needham often signed his works by carving his name into the back of the wood. So once the paintings come down in May, Crispell said she’s looking forward to taking the paintings out of the frames to examine them for a signature.
In the meantime, Crispell hopes these paintings and the Chicago Maritime Museum’s exhibitions more broadly will prompt visitors to think about how rivers and waterways have affected their own lives.
“Here in Chicago, of course, we’re aware of the lake and the river and how important they are,” she said. “But I think we could always stand to think a little bit more about how much the water has shaped Chicago.”
The Chicago Maritime Museum is in the Bridgeport Art Center, 1200 W. 35th St. Admission is $10 for adults, $5 for students with valid ID and people 65 and over and free for children 12 and younger. A special event celebrating the debut of the exhibits is scheduled for 11 a.m. Feb. 22 and will include a tour of the exhibits by Crispell.
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