James Fitzgerald


James Fitzgerald on the beach in Monhegan, Maine, circa 1962. James Fitzgerald papers, 1905-1992. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Fitzgerald studied at the Massachusetts School of Art and then at the Boston Museum School. During the summer, while he was enrolled at the Boston Museum School, Fitzgerald maintained a studio with several artists, including Lee Winslow Court, with whom Fitzgerald would also share a studio on Monhegan in 1925. In 1929, Fitzgerald moved to Monterey, California, where he became involved with a group of intellectuals and artists which included John Steinbeck, Ed Ricketts, Joseph Campbell, Edward Weston, and John Cage. Fitzgerald established his permanent residence on Monhegan in 1943 and lived primarily on the island for the rest of his life, acquiring first the studio, and then the house that Rockwell Kent built for himself in the early 1900s.

Primary Medium: Painting

Primary Stylistic Term: Modernist

HAHS Affiliations: Fitzgerald purchased Rockwell Kent‘s Monhegan home and studio that he built and lived in on and off. Kent’s cousin Alice Kent Stoddard also got much use out of the studio.

Fun Fact: James Fitzgerald’s dory The Command sits on the grounds of the Monhegan Island Light station and is part of an iconic vista that has been depicted by hundreds of artists. This vessel served as a reference for many of Fitzgerald’s Monhegan works.

Recommended Publications: James Fitzgerald: The Drawings and Sketches, Selections from the Catalogue Raisonne, Volume 1 by Robert L. Stahl (2017); James Fitzgerald: The Watercolors, Selections from the Catalogue Raisonne, Volume 2 by Robert L. Stahl (2022)