A Family Tradition

Tom and T.M. Nicholas have a shared passion for the land and sea of Cape Ann, Massachusetts.

- By John O'Hern

Gloucester, Massachusetts, with its deepwater harbor on the Atlantic Ocean, was established in 1623 and was first a port for trade and then all things maritime, from fishing to sail-making. The harbor and coves teeming with sailing vessels and the extraordinarily picturesque landscape and seascape then began to attract artists. Gloucester and the neighboring Cape Ann town of Rockport lured artists who were or would become members of the pantheon of American painters—Fitz Henry Lane, William Morris Hunt, Winslow Homer, Childe Hassam, John H. Twachtman, John Sloan, Edward Hopper, Stuart Davis, Jane Peterson and Marsden Hartley among them.