SHADING MEMORY
Discovering the Art and Artists of The Sawyer Pictures
A missing piece of American Art History
The Story
The year was 1925. Charles H. Sawyer, artist and photographer, had moved to Concord, NH from Farmington, ME in order to be closer to the White Mountains, an area Charles frequented during his travels. At home (his studio and storefront shared an address), the Sawyer family built and sustained a lucrative arts and photography business for over 35 years. This website is a window into The Sawyer Pictures: the photographs; the art of colorizing the photos; an examination of the skill with which multiple "copies" of an original painting were made; and using color analyses (unthinkable while Charles and his family were alive) to compare sample paintings by head colorist Gladys Towle to copies made by colorists on staff.
