Rediscovering a multi-talented Shelter Island artist

BY ELIZABETH AUMAN | Contributor

Shelter Island trivia: Which of the following is the work of Island artist Walter Cole Brigham (1870 -1941)?

a) Impressionist painting of an osprey nest

b) “Marine mosaic” stained glass window (Union Chapel)

c) Pulp magazine covers

d) Comic books

Answer: All of the above

Walter Cole Brigham is best known for the stained glass technique he invented, which he called marine mosaic, and for his impressionist oil paintings. He incorporated translucent seashells, beach pebbles and chunks of glass from telegraph insulators and other sources along with Tiffany-style stained glass in windows, lanterns, fire screens, jewelry and more.

Stunning examples of the windows are in the Union Chapel in the Grove and St. Mary’s Episcopal Church on the Island and in the Brooklyn Museum of Art.

Gillette Castle in East Haddam, Connecticut has several windows taken from the wreck of actor William Gillette’s houseboat, the Aunt Polly, which are very likely the work of Mr. Brigham as well. His marine mosaics, which were exhibited in a gallery in Manhattan and elsewhere, received many glowing notices in the press, including Gustav Stickley’s “The Craftsman” magazine.

Mr. Brigham exhibited his oil paintings in several cities in the northeast as well as Chicago and St. Louis, winning medals and positive reviews. Many Islanders and visitors own his work and the Shelter Island Historical Society is showing a number of his works at present.

Mr. Brigham illustrated pulp magazine covers and inside page art from at least 1921 through 1939. Pulps were so called because they were printed on ultra cheap paper made from wood pulp and were considered highly disposable and low-brow. Pulps contained exciting short stories aimed at the average man or woman. The covers needed to attract attention on crowded newsstands. They were lurid and garish, painted with bright primary colors and often featured a scantily-clad woman in the clutches of a villain or a moll holding a gun.

Most of Mr. Brigham’s commissions were detective pulps, such as “Racketeer Stories,” “Gangland Stories,” “Mob,” “Prize Detective” and many more. He also provided covers for romantic western pulp fiction and painted mildly risqué covers for “girlie” pulps including “Ginger Stories,” “Pep” and “Hot Stuff,”  but also illustrated respectable magazines, printed on higher quality shiny paper, including “The Wireless Age” and “Outing Magazine.”

Starting in 1935, Mr. Brigham had an active career as a comic book artist and writer. He’s most well-known among comic enthusiasts for the strip art and text on the cover of the first DC comic book. “New Fun Comics # 1A” was the first comic book of all original material and the first published by the company that would become the home of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and many others. Currently worth from $8,000 to $55,000, depending on condition, New Fun #1 is also considered to be the first comic book to feature a Disney character, the long-forgotten Oswald the Rabbit.

It may be surprising to us today that Mr. Brigham, a celebrated fine artist and stained glass designer/artisan, would have illustrated pulp magazines and comic books, but it was not uncommon at the time, especially during the Great Depression.

Renowned illustrator N. C. Wyeth painted pulp magazine covers beginning in 1909, when he was already established as an illustrator of prominent magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post. He went on to illustrate numerous novels including “Treasure Island” and “The Last of the Mohicans” during the same time he was painting for the pulps.

During the Depression, it was often the only work available and artists accepted it gladly. Mr. Brigham, who worked as an insurance agent and commercial artist with a family to support, no doubt was grateful for the work, too. Some pulp artists were embarrassed by the work and refused to sign it with most original pulp paintings discarded after they were reproduced for the covers.

Mr. Brigham was not shy about signing his work. His characteristic signature or initials stand out like a proud trademark. Over the past few decades, the tide of opinion has turned. In recent years, collectors have driven up the value of the paintings that remain. Robert Lesser’s collection of 700 pulp paintings has traveled to museums such as the Brooklyn Museum of Art and is now part of the permanent collection of the New Britain Museum of American Art.

Mr. Brigham has been cited as a fun-loving fellow who threw masquerade balls and other soirées at his studio on the Island. Further evidence that he embraced unpretentious art forms comes in the shape of a 1926 advertisement for his commercial art services.

It states, “More than a business — my work is my hobby.  The average business man gets his thrill from a good game of golf. Mine comes from a stiff problem in advertising art. Therefore, all the enthusiasm that bubbles out is sure to show itself in the finished work.”

As if to illustrate that enthusiasm, in the center of the layout, surrounded by examples of ads for automobiles and radios, is a delightful illustration of a smiling, plump little boy in overalls and a straw hat. He stands with a fishing pole in one hand and his trusty little dog by his side, beaming at the viewer.