From the Sept. 28, 1976 edition of the Vineyard Gazette:

Chappaquiddick born John H. Pease first went to sea in 1812 on the whaleship Thames of New Haven. At the age of 19 he was the first officer of the ship and gave up his quarters to the wife of a missionary bound for the Sandwich Islands. He was made master of the brig Bonniff of Nantucket in 1816 and spent 33 years in the business of whaling. Master of six ships, he saw his oldest son die while in the Pacific Ocean after suffering four months with an illness of the hip.

One year later in 1847, then in command of the ship Chandler Price of New Bedford, Captain Pease noticed wreckage strewn in the ocean. He assumed that a whaleship had been lost. A search among some mid-Pacific islands turned up the survivors of the wrecked ship Columbia, who were marooned on Sydenham’s Island. He rescued the crew from the natives through an exchange of 100 pounds of tobacco.

Captain Pease returned to Edgartown for good in 1857. There he ran a hotel on North Water street, called the Ocean House, until his death in 1879.

These few facts are all that is known about John H. Pease, except that in 1829, as an up and coming whaling captain, he commissioned a portrait of himself.

In the painting 36-year-old captain is rather elegantly attired and sits very upright. His lips are tightly pursed, and it is with a serious expression that he looks straight out at the viewer, holding his spyglass across his arm. Behind the elaborate drapery backdrop and pillar may be seen a view of the ocean in the rosy light of sunset. A tiny whaleship is visible out upon the sea and she has launched three fast boats in pursuit of two whales, having already captured one.

The painting is typical of American portraiture at the time. Many whaling captains struck such a formal and serious pose, often painted with details of their profession included. Such portraiture was the main source of livelihood for many journeyman painters in the 19th century.

This particular painting of Captain Pease is a good example of an early work by the artist Edward Dalton Marchant of Edgartown. Having served an apprenticeship with Gilbert Stuart in Boston, Mr. Marchant was just beginning the most prestigious career of any Island-born artist. In his time he would come to paint portraits of Abraham Lincoln, General William Sherman, Henry Clay, William Henry Harrison and Andrew Jackson.

Captain Pease’s portrait is one of the tangible links surviving from the period of whaling masters, as well as of journeyman artists. When it came into the hands of the Dukes County Historical Society, 150 years had taken its toll.

The condition of this painting and 13 others in the historical society’s collection were in such need of attention, they were turned over to Piero and Helen Mannoni, conservators of paintings.

Last year, the group of paintings was carefully transported to the Mannonis’s studio in New York. There they were cleaned of grim and old varnish. Where necessary, rips were repaired and minor losses of paint were filled in. Many of the paintings were giben linings to consolidate the canvas, and restretched to flatten the surface. Finally all of them were re-varnished to protect the paint and to bring out the colors, making the paintings look fresh.

Helen Mannoni first came to the Vineyard in a basket at the age of six months, and she has been returning ever since. She became interested in restoring paintings and went to Italy for training. Now she and her husband Piero both work in the field of painting conservation.

The main cause of deterioration of a painting is change. Where it is hung or stored is important as changes in temperature and humidity are harmful. Dampness is also damaging because of mildew.

Some other guidelines were suggested by the Mannonis for the care of old paintings. They should not be hung on external walls (where they are likely to feel changes in temperature), in draughts, or direct sunlight, over radiators or fireplaces. Individual circumstances will vary, and “sometime if a painting has been fine for 50 years, leave it there. It can get used to certain fluctuations in temperature.”

The historical society’s 14 rejuvenated paintings came back to the Island this summer. Vice president of the society Stanley Murphy, himself an artist, returned them to their frames. The paintings are back on the walls of the Thomas Cooke House.

In reflecting on the painting’s sojourn in her studio, Helen Mannoni said she felt the disparate personalities involved — Capt. John Pease, Captain Norton, Capt. Tristram Pease, the unknown man, Captain Bradly, Captain Weeks — began to form a common kinship. They all started taking on the look of a family unity, the Island’s ancestral past. “You work, with these things and they haunt you,” she said. “Luckily you begin to forget them.” But due to the efforts of Helen and Piero Mannoni, these particular faces will not be forgotten for some time to come.

Compiled by Hilary Wall
library@mvgazette.com