Elwyn George Gowen | Calm Green Cliffside Scene Maine

This oil on board by Elwyn George Gowen, titled “Calm Green Cliffside Scene, Maine,” presents a tranquil coastal view where grassy cliffs meet quiet water under a soft, luminous sky. Gowen’s restrained palette of greens and earth tones, combined with his sensitive handling of light and atmosphere, captures the quiet rhythm of the Maine shoreline. The composition’s simplicity and balance — cliffs, sea, and sky in gentle harmony — invite the viewer into a contemplative, place-specific moment on the New England coast.

Elwyn George Gowen (1895–1954) was a Maine-born American painter and teacher known for his coastal and inland New England landscapes. A graduate of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, he received multiple distinctions there, including the Ripley Scholarship, Thayer Prize, and Cummings Traveling Scholarships. He later studied and taught in Ogunquit under Charles Woodbury and became closely linked with the Ogunquit art community. Gowen’s work has been featured in the exhibition Elements of Expression: The Art and Design of Elwyn George Gowen at the Tufts University Art Gallery, and he is the subject of a forthcoming major retrospective at the Ogunquit Museum of American Art, which is actively seeking examples of his work from private owners. His paintings appear regularly at New England auction houses and remain in private coastal-art collections, underscoring his lasting appeal as a sensitive interpreter of Maine’s landscape and light.