Art exhibit shows evolution of Long Island through work of Edward Lange

When 24-year-old Edward Lange stepped off the SS Frankfurt in July 1870 onto Manhattan Island, he did not intend to move to the Lower East Side like so many other German immigrants.

Instead, he set his sights farther east, to another island — a land without automobiles and only accessible by boat. The Brooklyn Bridge hadn't even been built.

For the next 17 years, Lange would go on to document more than 150 landscapes of Long Island, from houses to ports and towns, becoming one of the most prolific artists in the region, capturing a rare moment in time when industrialization of the Gilded Age slowly crept onto the Island.

Preservation Long Island’s exhibition "Promoting Long Island: The Art of Edward Lange, 1870-1889” will showcase about 75 of the artist’s works beginning Friday and running through Dec. 1 at its gallery on Main Street in Cold Spring Harbor.

It will explore the artist’s journey from newly arrived immigrant to influential booster of the region’s expanding social culture and scenic environment, promoters said.

"These are really detailed images which are really amazing and capture this area during a time of a lot of change,” said Lauren Brincat, chief curator and director of collections for Preservation Long Island. "You’ve got the increasing expansion of industrialization along the Long Island Rail Road, but you still have those remnants of the maritime economies that were the backbone of Long Island for centuries.”

At a time when photography was still in its early stages and not commonly accessible, Lange filled a void of documenting Long Island, including the downtowns of East Northport and Huntington, seaport towns like Port Jefferson and Port Washington, and east to Montauk.

The exhibit will be held alongside Preserving Long Island’s publication of the same name, which features more than 100 full-color images of Lange’s work and essays of his life. Several walking tours will also be offered.

It is a rare chance to see so much of Lange’s work displayed together, said Brincat, who is a co-editor and author of an essay in the publication.

Some pieces had been displayed throughout Long Island’s historical societies, while other works were photographed in the 1970s and appear in black and white.

Lange’s success stemmed not just from his talent, but from his business savvy, Brincat said.

Born in Darmstadt, Germany in 1846, Lange was raised in a family well-established in the arts. His father Gustav Georg Lange owned a print shop and published several popular volumes on German history and scenic landscapes.

Gustav also owned land in Commack, where Lange moved and later inherited.

When Lange arrived here, the United States was still emerging from the Civil War and many felt patriotic pride in where they lived, Brincat said.

An entrepreneur as well as an artist, Lange took this opportunity to sell his work commercially as prints, often employing his signature use of gouache, a more opaque watercolor, and vibrant brushstrokes of contrasting color.

Newspapers would publish his work as advertisements for Long Island, which, at that point, was a vacation destination for the wealthy.

"Columbia Grove at Lloyd Harbor," for instance, highlights the former beach resort where vacationers would arrive by boat.

Lange would also make collages of his sketches look like a postcard by taking photographs of them and creating stills — one of the only artists who did so in the region at the time, Brincat said. He would then sell the collages as affordable souvenirs.

"He's an immigrant who comes here and makes a name for himself in this process, promotes this region and he fits himself into all of the rising industrial station and advancements in transportation,” Brincat said.

In addition to landscapes, Lange also captured industrialization head-on. For example, he sketched several railroad stations not long after they were built.

Brown Brothers Pottery, which operated from 1863 to 1905, was one of the many buildings Lange documented that played a huge role in Huntington’s industrialization, said Emily Werner, curator and collections manager of the Huntington Historical Society.

Ceramics and pottery were incredibly significant in the 19th century, one of the only ways to store and preserve items at the time. Lange’s eye for detail in every figure’s face and inch of the factory brings it to life far more than a photograph could have, Werner said.

The Huntington Historical Society lent the exhibit six Lange pieces that help preserve the village’s history.

But Brincat urged Long Islanders to look at Lange’s work in context; the works are described as photorealistic, as some things — and some groups of people — are intentionally not included.

For example, certain depictions of industrialization, such as the Setauket Rubber Factory, which was in operation from the late 1870s until the early 1900s, shows a serene field with two horses and buggies.

The factory employed nearly 700 people, many of whom were Eastern European Jews recently immigrated to the United States, none of whom are shown.

"This is a smoky, dirty, smelly, dangerous place where real people work,” said Brincat. "And you don't really see that."

Lange’s images of hotels and recreational spots also ignore the labor and efforts of people of color and immigrants who worked there and helped sustain the industry, Brincat said.

"There’s a lot more happening beyond the frame of this work as well that he, in some ways, is choosing not to include, because he is trying to sell,” said Brincat. "The deeper question is, who is this art for, who's being left out of the conversation.”

Lange moved to Olympia, Washington, in 1889 with his family and died in 1912. His house burned soon after his death and destroyed all its contents.

Brincat said that for this reason, parts of Lange's story are difficult to pin down. She said she hopes people who see Lange’s work will think more deeply about why Long Island is the way it is today.

"What’s happening in this late 19th century period really impacts or has fundamentally shaped the Long Island that we know and live on today,” she said.