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Arthur Diehl
Provincetown's extraordinary speed painter
By Laurel Guadazno Provincetown Banner Columnist
http://www.provincetownbanner.com/history/8/12/1999/1
Provincetown's fastest painter was, without a doubt, Arthur Diehl. Known as the 'speed painter extraordinaire,' Diehl often painted as many as 25 or 30 small, about nine-by-12-inch, very good-quality paintings a day. In 1912 he first came to Cape Cod, spending the summer and fall at Ballston Beach. After this he moved to Provincetown and opened a studio on Commercial Street where he entertained tourists, talking his fascinating line to tourists while he painted at his usual speed. Diehl painted local scenes, the sea and the sand dunes from memory and sketches. The Pilgrim Monument has in its collection a small painting by Diehl of Railroad Wharf which shows the S.S. Dorothy docked at the wharf.
In 'Art in Narrow Streets,' Ross Moffett recalls, 'Provincetown then had the amazing and rather magnificent Arthur V. Diehl, an Englishman, who painted and sold his pictures in the building that for many years housed the Provincetown Art Shop. Diehl would paint a dune or beach scene in a few minutes, while keeping up an entertaining, impressive and largely one-sided conversation for the benefit of the onlookers or prospective customers. On occasion he might claim descent from Napoleon, coupling with his story an involved explanation of legitimacy that was not easy to follow. Or again he might tell how, when as a boy of sixteen, in an emergency, he conducted the Royal London Orchestra. With the right audience, that is, when other artists were not present, he was apt to launch into a philosophical discussion of art. At a certain point the art of Rembrandt would enter the discussion, and at the end the listener would realize that Diehl was in no respect Rembrandt's inferior.'
Arthur Diehl was born in London, and moved to the U.S. when he was 23 years old. In her autobiography, 'The True Story of My Life' published in London in 1908, his mother, Alice Mangold Diehl, writes that her 'painter boy' showed astonishing talent in painting and music early on but had no inclination for school work. His mother showed some of Arthur's painting to the great painter Sir Frederick Leighton, and on his recommendation the family sent Arthur to study in Italy at age 15. When he returned from his studies at age 18, he submitted a painting to the prestigious Royal Academy. The painting, 'Aldeburgh Quay,' was exhibited and sold for 100 pounds.
Diehl moved for a time with his family to Sandwich in 1915 and stayed at the Daniel Webster Inn. He paid for their keep by painting two large paintings in one of the dining rooms and by doing a portrait of Webster that stills hangs over the inn's fireplace.
He returned to Provincetown during the '20s, painting during the summer and putting on painting shows in various cities during the rest of the year, typically in major department stores. He always sold his paintings directly to the public, indifferent to his artistic reputation and content to make enough money to support his family.
A devoted family man, when he was diagnosed with cancer he painted intensely to establish a large collection of paintings for his family to sell to provide them with income after his death. Arthur Diehl died in Fall River on Jan. 12, 1929. He is buried in Gray Gables Cemetery in Bourne.
Laurel Guadazno is Visitor Services Manager for the Pilgrim Monument & Provincetown Museum. She also writes 'History Highlights,' heard regularly on WOMR, 92.1 FM.
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