Artists of Lanesville - JOHN MANSHIP, Painter

This excerpt is from A Village at Lane's Cove by Barbara H Erkkila recently reprinted and available through Ten Pound Island Book Company. Barbara was the best chronicler of Lanesville and also authored the book Hammers on Stone-The History of Cape Ann Granite available in bookshops around Rockport and Gloucester, and The Cape Ann Museum giftshop.


John Manship usually paints in the ox-barn studio which his father, Paul Manship, internationally known sculptor, used as an exhibit hall for guests. Sharing John Manship’s working area is his wife, sculptor Margaret Cassidy.

John Manship’s art career began when he was quite young, and when he was “wearing the dark glasses of esthetic theory.” Since then he has become a traditional artist, expressing the vitality, the variety and beauty of the visual world. He paints in oils or watercolor and his subjects are scenes in Italy where he lived for fifteen years.

He can be found anywhere on Cape Ann during the summer, sometimes painting at his own quarry pit. His portrait of his father was shown at one of the early studio exhibits. The senior Manship was so proud of it, he hurried out to meet visitors so he could take them directly to it.