| John Whorf | ||
| Birth Date: January 10, 1903 |
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| Death Date: February 13, 1959 Artist Gallery |
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| The Whorfs were descendants of fishing captains and ship builders who first arrived on the Cape in 1650. John Whorf was born in Winthrop, Massachusetts on June 10, 1903. His father, a graphic designer and artist, had just moved the family from Cape Cod to be nearer to the Boston art market. Although having moved to the Boston area, a large part of John Whorf’s childhood was spent on Cape Cod. He also is known for doing occasional street and harbor scenes in Rockport and Gloucester.
Whorf received his first training in art from his father and decided to become an artist at an early age. In 1917, at the age of fourteen, he enrolled in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts School. He rebelled at the discipline required by the school and didn’t last the year. Though Whorf studied with some of the major artists of his time, he eschewed formal education, believing that the best way to learn painting was simply to paint.
At eighteen, Whorf was seriously injured in a fall. For several months, he was paralyzed and for years he walked with a cane. The limitations imposed on physical activity caused him to channel all of his energies into his art. He commented “after the accident…all the vigor of youth, that longing for adventure and romance, I put into my paintings”.
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