Greeting visitors as they enter the South Solon Meeting House, Willard W. Cummings’s group portrait depicts those individuals, past and present, who have had a lasting impact on the Meeting House. Therefore, it is fitting that the figures depicted in the portrait and most connected with the structure welcome visitors as they enter the building. The fresco conveys the timelessness of the building, with individuals from older times, whose features Cummings found in daguerreotypes, and more contemporary one, such as the artist’s parents, who are brought together and united by their connection and dedication to the South Solon Meeting House.
The large portrait lies on a curved wall within the Meeting House’s vestibule. It is cozily bordered on both sides by Anne Poor’s decorative fresco depicting native plants, all of which are local to South Solon and Central Maine. Together, the group portrait and its surrounding border depict the community of Solon, past and present, human and environmental. Unlike many of the other frescoes, the group portrait does not depict a biblical scene. However, an examination of the history and legacy of group portraiture, leads to an understanding of the context, inspiration, and artistic significance of the fresco, which provides a first impression to the visitors to the Meeting House, as well as an invitation to explore deeper inside.
Cummings’s group portrait is centered around Elder Fargo, deacon of the Meeting House from 1824 to 1843, who holds in his hands a model of the structure (Cummings 14). In front of him is a young girl, and behind him, the old reverend Josiah Peet who gave “unlimited effort” to the cause and preservation of the Meeting House and importantly, the community it served (Cummings 12). Other members of the community that are depicted around the model include Warren Heald, head of the original building committee, his descendants Mr. and Ms. Oliver Heald, Margaret Day Blake, who spearheaded the fresco project, Mr. and Mrs. Willard Howe Cummings (the artist’s parents), Laurier LeClair, and many others (Cummings 51). By gathering members of the community around the model of the building, in particular with an old minister and young girl on each side, Cummings conveys an essential idea about the Meeting House, that it serves the community, both young and old, throughout time. In that way, the timelessness of the structure can be perceived, as the goodwill and effort of Josiah Peet on behalf of the Meeting House is experienced by the younger generations.
Portraiture has a long and varied history and Cummings specialized in the genre. As early as World War II, Cummings painted portraits of generals, celebrities, and politicians, notably four-star US general Mark Wayne Clark, and “First Lady of the Screen” actress Bette Davis (whose 1962 portrait is at the Colby College Museum of Art). Since time immemorial, wealthy and powerful figures alike have commissioned works of art, in particular portraits, to commemorate themselves and serve as lasting symbols and representations of class, nobility, and other forms of prestige (Campbell). Consider the Ara Pacis Augustea, or altar of Augustean Peace, a Roman monument commissioned by the Roman senate in 13 BCE to honor the return of Emperor Augustus to the city of Rome. The Ara Pacis celebrates the peace, prosperity, and freedom which Augustus allegedly brought to his Empire and thus serves as a testament to Augustus’s competence as a leader, and undoubtedly too, a celebration of his rule. On its exterior we find figures in a procession, exemplifying group portraiture as a celebration of status and even, as propaganda for the powerful (ArcheoRoma). The frieze on the Ara Pacis’s southern wall presents surprising similarities with Cummings’s group portrait. Both works convey the importance of communal (and family) unity in the practice of religion, while displaying the intersection between civic duties and religion. In the frieze and in the fresco, children stand for future generations, along with a promise of prosperity.
Another interesting feature is Cummings’s choice to include a model of the Meeting House itself, inspired by the pictorial tradition of donors holding such miniature buildings, as can be seen in the famous example painted by Giotto for the Scrovegni (Arena) Chapel in Padua. We see the donor, Enrico Scrovegni offering a model of the chapel (dedicated to the Virgin of Charity) that he had built as he reformed his ways and stopped practicing usury.
Cummings’s group portrait in the South Solon Meeting House is a departure from the egotism often associated with portraiture. The place of honor given to the model of the Meeting House in the group portrait is nothing short of brilliant; it is the essential element which brings the community together. This compositional strategy enhances the viewer’s understanding of the purpose of the Meeting House, essentially that of bringing people together. With such great diversity in the life experiences of those depicted, the fresco conveys the power of an institution to bring individuals together, and importantly, to transgress social hierarchies and bring unity to a diverse group of people. Meaningfully, Cummings placed a man dressed in a suit next to a man in plain clothes holding a shovel. In other words, the portrait’s composition portrays the values embodied by the meeting house in the towns of New England: a “forum for free speech, the only building which accommodated the population of the village and was large enough so that all present could both see and hear. Although the Meeting Houses were consecrated to religious devotion, they were also the center of community life of every kind.” (Cummings 15). From its inception, the Meeting House was built with the specific intention that it be “opened freely on weekdays, when requested, for Conference Meetings and for lectures and addresses on all religious, benevolent, moral and scientific subjects” (Cummings 15). The group portrait that welcomes the visitors, thus mirrors the diversity of the building’s original and diverse mission. Built to serve an entire community, the South Solon Meeting House and the community that maintains it are unwaveringly committed to the building’s original purpose.
—Rory Hallowell
- ArcheoRoma. “Ara Pacis.”
- Campbell, Lorne. “Portraiture.” Grove Art Online, 2004.
- Cummings, Mildred H. South Solon: The Story of a Meeting House. South Solon, Maine: South Solon Historical Society, 1959.
- Harris, Beth, and Steven Zucker. “Giotto, Arena (Scrovegni) Chapel.” Smarthistory December 30, 2015.