A new exhibit, “Lasting Reflections: Feuchter and Castelli – Two Centuries on the Chesapeake,” featuring the work of two artists, Louis Feuchter and Marc Castelli, has opened in the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum’s Steamboat Building.  The exhibit includes almost 60 works by two artists, whose watercolors document endangered cultures of the Bay.  Feuchter and Castelli each haunted the shorelines and the water to capture distinctive scenes of the Chesapeake.

Louis Feuchter (1885-1957) lived his entire life in Baltimore, but also traveled to the Eastern Shore or sailed down the Patapsco River in his own boat to capture the rural settings for the sailing craft that he most often found on the urban waterfront.  He documented in meticulous detail the end of commercial sail on theChesapeake Bay.  Feuchter consciously sought to capture what schooner captain William T. Hooper said were disappearing.  Hooper stated, “There were hundreds of boats operating in Honga River.  The night before the season opened, Hickory Cove and beyond, would be lit up like a city.  Boats from Upper Hoopers Island, Wingate, Crapo and Bishop’s Head would join us there, ready to go at dawn the next day.”

Today’s Chesapeake watermen find themselves just as threatened as the schoonermen of Feuchter’s day.  Living artist Marc Castelli of Chestertown captures the light and feel of the waterman’s domain, going out on the water with watermen aboard their boats and observing the detail of their work.  He also depicts the thrill and majesty of sailing the Chesapeake’s log canoes and shares the experiences of the small cadre of sailors who race them.

The Maritime Museum’s exhibit includes paintings from the museum’s collections and works borrowed from private collectors.  The stories behind these paintings are interpreted, in part, in the words of commercial sailors like William T. Hooper, as well as contemporary watermen.

The museum is producing a pair of limited edition prints, one by each artist, in conjunction with the exhibit.  For further information about the Feuchter and Castelli exhibit, contact the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum at 410-745-2916 or visit www.cbmm.org.