Russell Cheney (1881‱945), “Howard Lathrop [or A Portsmouth Fisherman],†1937, oil on canvas, 32 by 40 inches, signed lower left. Collection of the Portsmouth Public Library.

Wikipedia says, “Russell Cheney (1881‱945) was an American painter. He graduated from Yale, where he was a member of the Skull and Bones secret society.” Cheney scholar Richard Candee disputes the second sentence, “that’s not all that happened in his life,” says the guest curator of a free exhibit opening June 1 at the Portsmouth Athenaeum.

Candee has spent years cataloging Cheney’s paintings and has built a database of almost 1,000 Cheney-related items. “His paintings are still turning up,” Candee said of the artist who shared a cottage in Kittery Point, Maine, with his life-partner, author F.O. Matthiessen, from 1927 until Cheney’s death in 1945.

About 40 paintings by Cheney will be on display in the Athenaeum’s Randall Gallery in “The Art of the Domestic: Kittery and Southern Maine,” June 1 to September 6. Another 50 or so works will be at a Portsmouth Historical Society exhibit at the Discover Portsmouth Center at Middle and Islington Streets, “From Impressionism to Yankee Modernism: Portsmouth and the New Hampshire Coast,” June 1 to October 31.

Cheney, born in 1881 to a Connecticut family of well-to-do silk manufacturers, had deep roots in New England. From 1910 to 1915, he summered at York Harbor, painting out of doors at York and Ogunquit, Maine, and studying with Charles Woodbury.

Dorothy Adlow, art critic for the Christian Science Monitor, called Cheney “a New England artist who enjoyed the exhilarating influence of modern French painting &†a modern American romantic.”

In 1928, Kittery newspaperman Horace Mitchell Jr interviewed Cheney for the Portland Sunday Transcript. He wrote admiringly, “The pictures Cheney has made of Kittery Point and the vicinity fairly breathe the spirit of the old town.”

In a 1996 essay at russellcheney.com, Patricia Heard wrote of the artist’s strong connection to Portsmouth. “Cheney became a familiar sight on the streets of Portsmouth&⁡nd a crowd often gathered around his easel,” wrote Heard, who was the guest curator of a Cheney exhibit at the Athenaeum in 1996.

A visit to Cheney’s studio will be part of a daylong symposium on August 2, “Yankee Modernism in Maine,” co-sponsored by the Kittery Art Association, the Kittery Historical Society and the Portsmouth Athenaeum. The day will include lectures by Candee, Thomas A. Denenberg, Jay Grossman, Michael Culver and Donna Cassidy, as well as lunch, a tour and exhibits. Preregistration is required; the cost is $35. For information and reservations, www.portsmouthathenaeum.org

Other events related to the Athenaeum exhibit include curator Candee’s gallery talks on Russell Cheney on June 28, “New Discoveries”; July 19, “The Art of the Domestic”; August 9, “Yankee Modernism in Kittery”; and August 30, “Russell Cheney: American and New England Master”. All talks will be given at the Athenaeum at 11 am. For reservations and information, 603-431-2538.

The Portsmouth Historical Society will also host a series of talks. The first, July 12, deals with “Cheney’s Training and Early Work.” Others are: July 26, “Depression Portsmouth”; August 16, “Cheney’s New Castle paintings”; September 6, “Coal Pockets and Triton, Portsmouth Waterfront”; September 20, “Painting the Seasons: Snow or No Snow”; October 4, “Photography and Painting”; and October 25, “Yankee Modernism and the Seacoast.” All are at 11 am. For reservations, 603-436-8420.

For further information, www.russellcheney.com , www.portsmouthathenaeum.org/ or www.portsmouthhistory.org .