An Impressionist mystery floats at the Chicago Maritime Museum

Chicago Maritime Museum has a mystery on display.

Five unsigned Impressionist oil paintings from the late 1800s of the Chicago River were donated by Anne May, on behalf of her husband, Philip May. He was a Great Lakes sailor and a collector of maritime art and artifacts.

May’s research pointed toward Black house painter James Bolivar Needham as the likely artist.

CMM notes that as a “teenager, Needham became a deckhand on Great Lakes vessels and after a few years he moved permanently to Chicago. In 1893, Needham was part of the team that decorated and painted buildings at the World’s Columbian Exposition.”

In the 1800s, he began painting the Chicago River. He often used parts of shipping crates, but rarely signed his work. Instead, he carved information into the backs of the wood panels.

“It will be a fun mystery to keep untangling as we bring them down,” said CMM curator Madeline Crispell.

She’s confident it is Needham’s work because of the subject, the style and material. At least one painting definitely seemed painted on a shipping crate panel.

The mystery should be solved when CMM brings the exhibit down and examines the backs. The exhibit as well as two of the more than 100 canoes CMM has by late canoe maker Ralph Frese will be on display through April 19.

Dale Bowman

CMM is on Bubbly Creek in the basement of the Bridgeport Art Center at Racine and 35th. Information on CMM is at chicagomaritimemuseum.org.

(Note: A good way to experience BAC, one of the coolest spaces in Chicago, is the open studios on “3rd Fridays.” CMM participates with maritime experts.)

Wild things

• Sheds are being found, but some big-racked bucks are still holding.
• In the last week, I had a lumbering opossum, red-winged blackbirds, sandhill cranes and singing cardinals.

Stray cast

Tom Skilling is to Chicago weather what Henry’s Sports and Bait was to Chicago fishing.