A Painter's Psalm: The Mural from Walter Anderson's Cottage

by Redding S. Sugg Jr.

The astonishing history of a brilliant treasure Walter Anderson created in his hidden room.

Genres: Art

85 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1978

Reviews

[Teresa]

When the Mississippi artist Walter Anderson died, his family opened up his Shearwater cottage and found a treasure trove -- not only the stacks and stacks of drawings, writings and paintings, but also the mural of the padlocked "little room" of the cottage, encompassing a full three walls, including the borders of the windows, the inside part of the door, the chimneypiece of the North Wall and the ceiling. It's a colorful explosion of Dawn, Noon, Sunrise (the full walls) and Night. Because the mural would eventually have been destroyed by the elements if left where it was, the family designed a museum in Ocean Springs to accept and preserve the "little room."

Partly because a handwritten copy of Psalm 104 from the Holy Bible: King James Version was found among Anderson's papers, Suggs interprets the mural as Anderson's response. Goats and conies, mentioned in the psalms, appear in the mural; the young lions hunting in the night for their prey become a stalking black cat rippling with static electricity; and, in a nod to the Mississippi coastline (in particular that of "his" Horn Island), the alligator is the Biblical Leviathan. Local flora and birds (my favorites) abound.

Anderson was a man who wished to literally become one with Nature. I thought I knew most of what there is to know about him, but here I learned that he would lie in a nullah (his word for a puddle or a bog), naked and motionless, and revel in a snake's wriggling underneath him or a mosquito-hawk's landing on his nose. (A reproduction of his charming watercolor of this activity is included and it's one I'd not seen before.)

Anderson believed he, as artist, had a role in the procreation of nature. Suggs points out that not only the sun -- rising in the East Wall windows, pouring into the 'Noon' of the South Wall and setting in the windows of the West Wall -- but the trees outside the cottage, framed by the decorated borders of the windows, bring Nature into the room, into the artist's creation. The museum has recreated this orientation and planted trees outside the windows that one day may be as big and profuse as those of the original setting.

I've been lucky enough to see this room several times as the museum is within driving distance, but I'm grateful for the photos in this book taking me there whenever I want to go.

[Kendall]

The reproductions of the murals from the little room of Walter Inglis Anderson's cottage make this book a must-have for any fan of his work or of mid-twentieth-century art. Redding S. Sugg Jr.'s analysis of the murals and the background he provides adds to the impact of the murals.

[Cheryl]

I love this book. It is one of my favorites. I got it a few years ago at The Walter Anderson Museum in Ocean Springs, Ms. I remember walking in the community center there and standing an absolute amazement. Walter Anderson is one of my favorite Mississippi artist. I cried when Katrina hit the coast, I know so many beautiful things were lost. I'm thankful I have this book, and the pictures of Anderson's art work from the day I spent admiring his work, in person, years before the hurricane wahsed so much away.

[Cheryl]

This is one of my favorite books. I was lucky enough to see the "little room" before Katrina hit Ocean Springs. There has been a huge effort to restore Andersons paintings. This book give a glimpse into the life of an amazing Mississippi artist.

[Jim]

Don't let my three-star rating of this book throw you off. Walter Anderson was a brilliant and original artist.