Griswold Tyng 

(1883-1960) 

To repeat a once popular advertising slogan: “Where’s the beef?” Perhaps more accurately: where’s the biographical information? This painting appeared on the cover of a Wiscasset Bay Gallery catalogue in 2003. By the time I received my copy in the mail, the piece was already spoken for and was in the home of a client who was looking for “the right spot to hang it.” Given how good the piece looked and the totally unfamiliar name to me, I presumed it was a European painting, possibly Scandinavian; yet a Who Was Who listing said: born in Dorchester, Massachusetts; studied with De Camp and Howard Pyle; and living in Orleans, Massachusetts. The level of firsthand knowledge of cod fishing paraphernalia and the skill as an artist are impressive, and I was delighted to hear that the “right wall” could not be found, leaving the door open for me to purchase the piece. Tyng’s listing suggests a number of art-related endeavors in an advertising and publicity capacity, but one senses the artist probably stopped easel painting at a relatively young age. Other than this rather lame observation, one must conclude there are either additional paintings of great quality stashed away somewhere out there, or this is his masterpiece—as they say in the music industry, “a one-hit wonder.”