The Art Colony Wharf Studios

When Henry and Florence Lang purchased South Wharf and portions of Commercial Wharf, the future direction of the waterfront lay in their hands. On South Wharf (Island Service Wharf ), they founded the Island Service Company, supplying gasoline, coal, ice, and other essentials from a large warehouse at the end of the wharf. The wharf, warehouse, and the company vessel named Nantisco (for Nantucket Island Service Company) would be captured in many a canvas by the artists of the colony.

Florence Lang’s vision for the transformation of cottages on Commercial Wharf and other scattered spots along the waterfront from old shacks to artist studios was pivotal for the Art Colony. Her renovated wharf studios were minimally equipped, with cots, soapstone sinks, and shared toilets and showers. Each cottage possessed a charming nickname, such as Wateredge (the longtime studio of Elizabeth Saltonstall), Harborview, the Scallop, the Barnacle, Sailloft, and Barnsite. With rents as low as fifty to seventy dollars per season, as the Boston Herald gasped, it was easy to “realize why Nantucket artists are still rubbing their eyes and wondering if it’s really true!”

Although many artists also lived away from the water, the true heart of the Art Colony was to be found among the “waterfront artists,” who developed a magical camaraderie and “esprit de corps,” and later played crucial roles in the future of arts organizations on Nantucket, including the Kenneth Taylor Galleries and the Artists Association of Nantucket. In the early 1940s, one of this corps, Ruth Haviland Sutton, purchased the Commercial Wharf property from the Langs and carried on the practice of renting studio space to artists. Island Service Wharf continued to operate until its sale to Sherburne Associates in 1964.With the Langs’ help, Nantucket’s whaling wharves launched a generation of Nantucket artists, who brought about a rebirth of the waterfront and a transformation at the heart of the island’s identity from an economic hub dependent on the sea to a haven and harbor for the arts.

The Wharves, 1927. Photo by M. W. Boyer