Feast for the eyes emerging at Lynn’s main library

LYNN – Her title is chief librarian but Nadine Mitchell is starting to feel like an art curator in addition to being the head of the city’s library system.With help from the library trustees and a core of patrons dedicated to raising money, Mitchell has overseen the restoration and public unveiling of a treasure trove hidden for years under grime and dust in the attics and back rooms of the main library and its former branch buildings.”Maternal Love,” “The Last Ray,” and eight other paintings now hang in select spots throughout the North Common Street library. The works will be celebrated during a special fund-raising afternoon and evening Sept. 28 in the library.A glance at the revived collection offers a peek into Lynn’s history and a quick art history lesson.”View of Harbor” and “Lynn Marshes” shows Lynn with smoke rising from chimneys as well as haystacks lining what is now Route 107.George Inness’ “Landscape with Artist” is an example of 19th century Hudson River Valley painting. “Maternal Love” is a work of Renaissance era painting and “Knight with Princess,” an Arthurian painting hanging in the children’s room, was painted by Norman Rockwell contemporary Frank Schoonover.Families of individuals who played prominent roles in the library’s history donated most the paintings to the city in the 1920s when those founders and principle trustees died.Library renovations and changes in its layout gradually relegated the works to storage where dust and grime coated their palettes and darkened their gilded frames.The discovery of the Inness painting in 2004 prompted the trustees and Friends of the Lynn Public Library to commission a restoration of the work by the Fogg Museum in Cambridge.Fogg curators looked over other paintings stored in the library attics and helped Mitchell and the trustees prioritize the works for restoration.With financial support from money raised by the Friends, the trustees embarked on restoring and displaying the other forgotten paintings.”The trustees felt this was a doable project and most libraries don’t have this type of collection,” Mitchell said.The collection also includes portraits of Lynn notables Edward Coffin and Charles Sumner; a painting of trees attributed to Ernest Longfellow and a French country house painted by Leon Legat.The paintings are protected by a wireless alarm system.