In 2012, Delaware lost one of its greats — the beloved painter and educator Jack Lewis, who passed away on Aug. 19 that year, days shy of celebrating his 100th birthday on Aug. 30. His legacy as a painter was forged over decades through thousands of works that captured the history and life in communities up and down the First State and beyond.
We at the Historic Odessa Foundation (HOF) are thrilled to honor Jack’s legacy and legend by being the northern Delaware venue for an exhibition of his selected works from the Nancy and Russell Suniewick Collection on loan from the Rehoboth Art League (RAL). The collection was first presented to the public earlier this year by RAL in the exhibition entitled “Everyday Life, Everyday people: The Works of Jack Lewis.”
Nancy and Russel Suniewick, long-time friends of Jack, and the executive producers of “If You Lived Here, You Would Be Home Now: A Film About Jack Lewis and Bridgeville, DE,” donated an outstanding collection of 52 paintings and various documents of the late artist to RAL in 2021. The works date from the 1930s to 1980s, and include portraits, domestic and foreign scenes, and an important early self-portrait.
When I moved to Delaware 35 years ago from Ohio, it was always a treat to see Jack plein air painting on The Green in Dover, one of his favorite spots. I didn’t know him personally but had the pleasure of meeting him on several occasions at art receptions or out and about with a drawing on his lap or standing at his easel. He was in virtually every little town painting, including Odessa, where he captured the foundation’s National Historic Landmark Corbit-Sharp House in a watercolor that we are proud to have in our collection.
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Jack cut a distinctive figure. At over six feet tall with white hair, often crowned with a hat and white goatee, you couldn’t miss him. He was, to use the phrase, a gentleman and a scholar who was always willing to share his knowledge, stop and talk and explain what he was doing. There are many people in Delaware who knew him very well, and his influence as an art educator is an enormous part of his legacy.
Jack came to Delaware by way of the Works Project Administration’s Civilian Conservation Corps in 1936, as an artist recording the activities of men working on mosquito control at three camps along the Delmarva Peninsula. The year prior, he had graduated from Rutgers University with a bachelor’s in art.
In 1942, he enlisted in the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers and did a tour in the Pacific, an experience that inspired his second book published in 1950, “Pacific Odyssey,” that contained a foreword by Eleanor Roosevelt. His first book, “The Delaware Scene,” published in 1940, contained a foreword by his friend N.C. Wyeth, who together shared a love for the writings of Thoreau.
After his time in the Pacific, Jack returned home and re-enrolled at Rutgers to obtain his master’s in education. From then on, he began teaching in public schools, at Delaware Technical Community College, and other institutions. When the Rehoboth Art League was established in 1938 in Henlopen Acres, Jack was given the first solo show, and for more than 50 years continued exhibiting and teaching there.
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As an art lover and former art educator, RAL has always been a destination for me and my family. When I saw “Everyday Life, Everyday People…” back in January, I thought of the show as the perfect collection of Jack’s works to display in Historic Odessa’s gallery. I immediately contacted RAL’s Executive Director Sara Ganter, and Exhibitions Director Nick Serratore. They came and toured our site and exhibition space and enthusiastically agreed.
On June 15, in conjunction with the exhibition, which runs through July 2, HOF will have the pleasure of hosting Jack’s daughter Heather Lewis, an artist, teacher and coach, for a morning workshop and evening artists reception and presentation. Heather lives in York, Maine, where Jack moved with his wife Dorothy in 1998 to be close to her and his other daughter Sallie, also an artist.
In his foreword to “The Delaware Scene,” N.C. Wyeth described Jack’s paintings as “modest and unassuming and are born of sincerity and great sympathy.” These attributes could easily describe Jack himself. Jack was personable and always willing to share his life’s experiences. He was a working artist to the end and a Delaware treasure.
Brian Miller is the associate curator of Historic Odessa Foundation.
