07/27/2026
Many of the works that we see in “Edwin Rissland: Revisitations” have titles that read like Provincetown landmarks shared between locals: “View from Katie’s Hill,” “Near Shankpainter Road,” and this one, “Commercial Street, Atkins & Merrills, Houses.”
“There are many folks in town who will be able to identify the locations Rissland chose to paint, comparing them to the current views,” writes curator Joe Fiorello. “There will be some who have memories of those who lived in many of the houses while he was painting in Provincetown and there are those who live in them now who will appreciate his unique ability of portraying the town.”
“Revisitations,” on view through August 23, presents a long view of Provincetown captured through the eyes of the painter Edwin Ertel Rissland (1907-2001) with works from over six decades – 1930 to 1997.
Edwin E. Rissland first came to Provincetown at the age of twenty-three to study painting at the summer school run by George Elmer Browne. He returned nearly every summer thereafter and, in over more than sixty years, explored and painted scenes throughout the town and its surrounding landscape. In those early summers, he came to know Provincetown intimately—from the harbor and tidal flats to the moors, dunes, and hills beyond Bradford Street. Certain places—the harbor, Shank Painter Pond, and the West End—became enduring subjects in his work. Some of these landscapes have since changed or disappeared, while others remain much as they were.
Edwin Rissland, Commercial Street, Atkins & Merrills, Houses, c. 1931, Oil on panel, 16x20 inches
