I love trains. So, I was delighted when a friend suggested that we take the train from Portland to Brunswick and spend the afternoon at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. Three of us agreed to make the trip on a Sunday afternoon, taking the 11:45 out of Portland and returning at 5:50 that afternoon. As we were seniors, the round-trip ticket cost only $10 – a pleasant surprise.

The station was crowded when we arrived but we soon realized that these travelers were all bound for Boston by bus. It was a beautiful sunny day and we went down the long ramp to await the train outdoors. A conductor asked us to please move away from the entrance to the station because the train from Boston had many passengers destined for Portland. Sure enough, I counted more than 90 passengers streaming through the gate, all eager to enjoy the attractions of the city. The train was still quite full and we had to split up for the journey to Brunswick, although many passengers exited at Freeport excitedly talking about lobster rolls and shopping forays to L.L. Bean.

Upon our arrival in Brunswick, we decided we needed a bit of lunch before walking to the museum and so we strolled down to the town common to investigate the various lunch wagons. Hot dogs seemed to fit in with our holiday mood and we were soon sitting on a bench under a shady tree munching on excellent dogs, loaded with all the extras and nestled in delicious steamed rolls.

A 10-minute walk took us to the Bowdoin campus and the museum – the main attraction this summer has been “Maurice Prendergast – By the Sea.” Almost the entire first floor is devoted to his works, more than 90 of them, arranged chronologically. Our holiday mood continued – what could be more emblematical of a holiday than these wonderful paintings of crowds of people enjoying the New England seashore – the brilliant sun and salty breezes of the open ocean.

My favorite was a watercolor entitled “The Balloon,” painted in 1901, loaned from a private collection. In the upper-left corner, an enormous red balloon is poised against a blue sky dotted with fluffy white clouds. Beyond the balloon, sailboats glide gracefully over the sea – but most of the canvas depicts a crowd of gaily- dressed spectators, many holding red parasols for protection from the intense sun, and all standing with their backs to the viewer. In the foreground, we can see children, facing us, but with blank faces, playing in puddles and digging in the sand, buckets at hand.

In another charming watercolor, “Viewing the Ships,” which is on loan from the Chicago Art Museum and painted in 1895, a couple sits on a grassy bank, side by side, with their backs to the artist. She wears a gleaming white dress and a white bonnet – he is in a black suit and his straw hat has a black band. They gaze across the river channel studded with sailing ships. The skyline of a town is visible in the distance. Are they holding hands? Are they in love? We are intrigued, but can only speculate.

Maurice Brazil Prendergast (1858 – 1924) was born in Newfoundland. When he was 10 years old, his family came to Boston, impelled by a failed grocery business. Maurice and his brother, Charles, became successful commercial artists doing advertising and lettering. In 1891 they went to Paris to study art and Maurice stayed for four years, coming under the influence of Van Gogh, Seurat and Cezanne. His works were shown in the famous Armory show of 1913 in New York City and he moved there in 1914. He is now known by many critics as the American equivalent of the French Modernists, able to hold his own against Picasso and Matisse.

The Bowdoin Museum has much more to offer – we walked up the stairs to the Assyrian Gallery where we paused to admire the bigger than life bas-relief, “Winged Figure with Embroidered Tunic and Shawl.” Carved from gypsum around 850 BCE, at the behest of the Assyrian King Ashurnastrpal II, it was taken from a palace in Nimrud, Iraq by Dr. Henri Haskell, who gave it to the museum in 1855.

The Markell Gallery is currently the home of a small Civil War exhibit, “the Mighty Scourge of War,” in honor of the sesquicentennial. It features Winslow Homer engravings, photographs by Timothy H. O’Sullivan and Alexander Gardner, and a handsome likeness of Joshua Chamberlain by Matthew Brady. I was attracted to a tiny photograph of Harriett Beecher Stowe, attributed to Jeremiah Gurney & Son. She is standing next to her younger brother, Henry Ward Beecher, the famous preacher. The commentary noted that Joshua Chamberlain attended readings of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” by the author at her home in Brunswick while he was at Bowdoin.

The Boyd Gallery and the Shaw Ruddock Galleries featured “Perspectives on Modern and Contemporary Art.” An enormous, light-filled painting by Neill Welliver in 1980 immediately demands attention. “Deer in Bottom” puts the viewer deep into the Maine woods watching two deer standing amid pines and birches on a forest floor littered with broken dead branches.

Being a great fan of James Fennimore Cooper, I was fascinated by “Leatherstocking’s Rescue,” an oil painting by John Quidor (1801-1881). Deep dark woods surround a sunlit clearing – two young women are highlighted in the center of the clearing, one has fainted and lies prostrate on the grass, the other bends over her, hands clasped to her throat. On the left, a panther is sprawled at the edge of the clearing, on his back with paws outstretched, his eyes still glowing despite his death. On the right, my hero, Natty Bumpo, is barely visible in the gloomy forest, standing on a rocky ridge, the light glistening off the steel of his long-barreled rifle. It is a thrilling rendition of a scene from one of my favorite books, “The Pioneers.”

Marta Bent lives in Scarborough.