![William L](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/William_L._Lathrop_-_The_Tow_Path_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg)
Pennsylvania Impressionism was an
American Impressionist movement of the first half of the 20th century that was centered in and around
Bucks County
Bucks County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 646,538, making it the fourth-most populous county in Pennsylvania. Its county seat is Doylestown. The county is named after the English ...
,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
, particularly the town of
New Hope. The movement is sometimes referred to as the "New Hope School" or the "Pennsylvania School" of landscape painting.
Beginnings
Landscape painter
William Langson Lathrop
William Langson Lathrop (pronounced "LAY-throp") (March 29, 1859 – September 21, 1938) was an American Impressionist landscape painter and founder of the art colony at New Hope, Pennsylvania. He is sometimes referred to as a "Pennsylvania I ...
(1859-1938) moved to New Hope in 1898, where he founded a summer art school. The mill town was located along the
Delaware River
The Delaware River is a major river in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. From the meeting of its branches in Hancock (village), New York, Hancock, New York, the river flows for along the borders of N ...
, about forty miles from Philadelphia and seventy miles from Manhattan. The area's rolling hills were spectacular, and the river, its tributaries, and the
Delaware Canal
The Delaware Division of the Pennsylvania Canal, more commonly called the Delaware Canal, runs for parallel to the right bank of the Delaware River from the entry locks near the mouth of the Lehigh River and terminal end of the Lehigh Canal at E ...
were picturesque. The natural beauty attracted the artist
Edward Redfield (1869-1965), who settled north of the town. Redfield painted nature in bold and vibrant colors, and was “the pioneer of the realistic painting of winter in America.” His thick layering distinguished him from his contemporaries, and he amassed more honors and awards than any other artist in the New Hope Colony. His style is distinguished by its color, light, and usual time of day when painting. The third major artist to settle in the area was
Daniel Garber
Daniel Garber (April 11, 1880 – July 5, 1958) was an American Impressionist landscape painter and member of the art colony at New Hope, Pennsylvania. He is best known today for his large impressionist scenes of the New Hope area, in which he o ...
(1880-1958), who came to New Hope in 1907. Garber hated painting winter scenes and applied his paint lightly. An instructor at the
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[impressionist
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...](_blank)
movement, this style of art is characterized by an interest in the quality of color, light, and the time of day. This group of artists usually painted in plein air, or out of doors, to capture the moment. According to
James A. Michener Art Museum’s Senior Curator Brian Peterson, “what most characterized Pennsylvania impressionism was not a single, unified style but rather the emergence of many mature, distinctive voices: Daniel Garber's luminous, poetic renditions of the Delaware River; Fern Coppedge's colorful village scenes;
Robert Spencer's lyrical views of mills and tenements; John Folinsbee's moody, expressionistic snowscapes; and William L. Lathrop's deeply felt, evocative Bucks County vistas."
Art historian Thomas C. Folk defines the movement as the ''Late Pennsylvania School'', those artists that "came to prominence in Bucks County after 1915 or after the
Armory Show
The 1913 Armory Show, also known as the International Exhibition of Modern Art, was a show organized by the Association of American Painters and Sculptors in 1913. It was the first large exhibition of modern art in America, as well as one of ...
and the
Panama-Pacific International Exposition." According to Folk, the three most notable artists in this group were
John Fulton Folinsbee,
Walter Emerson Baum
Walter Emerson Baum (December 14, 1884 – July 12, 1956) was an American artist and educator active in the Bucks and Lehigh County areas of Pennsylvania in the United States. In addition to being a prolific painter, Baum was also responsible fo ...
and
George Sotter.
One of the artists, Walter Emerson Baum, worked as a teacher and educator and through his founding of the
Baum School of Art
The Baum School of Art is a non-profit community art school located in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
In 2016–2017, the school had a total enrollment of 3,346 students, 1,921 of which were children and teens, and 1,425 of which were adults. 178 clas ...
and the
Allentown Art Museum
The Allentown Art Museum of the Lehigh Valley is an art museum located in Allentown, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1934 by a group organized by noted Pennsylvania impressionist painter, Walter Emerson Baum. With its collection of over 19,000 wo ...
, would serve to expand the influence of the movement out of Bucks County and into
Lehigh County, specifically
Allentown Allentown may refer to several places in the United States and topics related to them:
*Allentown, California, now called Toadtown, California
*Allentown, Georgia, a town in Wilkinson County
*Allentown, Illinois, an unincorporated community in Taze ...
and the
Lehigh Valley
The Lehigh Valley (), known colloquially as The Valley, is a geographic region formed by the Lehigh River in Lehigh County and Northampton County in eastern Pennsylvania. It is a component valley of the Great Appalachian Valley bound to the no ...
, where the movement continued to flourish into the 1940s and 1950s. Today, this group of artists is collectively known as the
Baum Circle
The Baum Circle refers to the group of artists either taught by, associated with, or directly influenced by Pennsylvania impressionist painter Walter Emerson Baum. Most of these individuals lived, worked and painted in the Lehigh Valley region o ...
.
List of Pennsylvania Impressionist painters
*
Eleanor Abrams
Eleanor Abrams (1885 - 1967), was an American painter. She was an original member of the Philadelphia Ten.
Biography
Abrams was born in 1885 in Butler County, Pennsylvania. She worked as an occupational therapist, known as Reconstruction Aides, ...
*
Faye Swengel Badura __NOTOC__
Faye may refer to:
Places
* Faye, Loir-et-Cher, France, a village
* Faye-d'Anjou, France, a village
* La Faye, France, a village
* Faye, Kentucky, Elliott County, Kentucky, United States
* Faye (crater), a lunar impact crater in the sout ...
*
Henry Baker
*
Walter Emerson Baum
Walter Emerson Baum (December 14, 1884 – July 12, 1956) was an American artist and educator active in the Bucks and Lehigh County areas of Pennsylvania in the United States. In addition to being a prolific painter, Baum was also responsible fo ...
*
Theresa Bernstein
Theresa Ferber Bernstein-Meyerowitz (March 1, 1890 – February 13, 2002) was an American artist and writer born in Kraków, in what is now Poland, and raised in Philadelphia. She received her art training in Philadelphia and New York City. Over ...
*
Rae Sloan Bredin
Rae Sloan Bredin (9 September 1880 – 16 July 1933) was an American painter. He was a member of the New Hope, Pennsylvania school of impressionists.
He is known for his peaceful spring and summer landscapes with relaxed groups of women and chil ...
*
Constance Cochrane
Constance Cochrane (1888-1962), was an American painter. She was an original member of the Philadelphia Ten.
Biography
Cochrane was born in 1888 at the United States Navy Yard in Pensacola, Florida. She attended the Philadelphia School of Desig ...
*
Morgan Colt
*
Fern Coppedge
*
Nate Dunn
*Charles Evans
*
Nancy Maybin Ferguson
*
John Fulton Folinsbee
*
Daniel Garber
Daniel Garber (April 11, 1880 – July 5, 1958) was an American Impressionist landscape painter and member of the art colony at New Hope, Pennsylvania. He is best known today for his large impressionist scenes of the New Hope area, in which he o ...
*
Frederick Harer
*
L. Birge Harrison
Lovell Birge Harrison (October 28, 1854, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – 1929) was an American genre and landscape painter, teacher, and writer. He was a prominent practitioner and advocate of Tonalism.
Life
Born in Philadelphia, Birge Harrison w ...
*
John Wells James
John Wells James Jr. (1873–1951) was an American artist who created impressionist landscape paintings. James was associated with the Salmagundi Club in Greenwich Village and the "New Hope School of Impressionism" in Bucks County, Pennsylv ...
*
Peter Keenan
Peter Patrick Pius Paul "Crackers" Keenan (born 7 April 1951) is a former Australian rules footballer who worked as a strapper for Bart Cummings, and played with Melbourne Football Club, Melbourne, Essendon Football Club, Essendon and North Me ...
*
William Langson Lathrop
William Langson Lathrop (pronounced "LAY-throp") (March 29, 1859 – September 21, 1938) was an American Impressionist landscape painter and founder of the art colony at New Hope, Pennsylvania. He is sometimes referred to as a "Pennsylvania I ...
*
Harry Leith-Ross
Harry "Tony" Leith-Ross (27 January 1886 – 15 March 1973) was a British-American landscape painter and teacher. He taught at the art colonies in Woodstock, New York and Rockport, Maine, and later was part of the art colony in New Hope, Pennsy ...
*
Carl Lindborg
*
Emma Fordyce MacRae
Emma Fordyce MacRae (April 27, 1887, Vienna – August 6, 1974) was an American representational painter. She was a member of the Philadelphia Ten, a group of women artists who worked and exhibited together. Her work — including still lif ...
*
Robert A.D. "Rad" Miller
*
Roy Cleveland Nuse
*
Mary Elizabeth Price
*
Herbert Pullinger
*
Edward Redfield
*
Charles Rosen (painter)
*
Walter Elmer Schofield
Walter Elmer Schofield (September 10, 1866 – March 1, 1944) was an American Impressionist landscape and marine painter. Although he never lived in New Hope or Bucks County, Schofield is regarded as one of the Pennsylvania Impressionists ...
*
Henry B. Snell
Henry Bayley Snell (September 29, 1858 – January 17, 1943) was an American Impressionist painter and educator. Snell's paintings are in museum collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Albright–Knox Art Galle ...
*
George Sotter
*
Robert Spencer (artist)
Robert Carpenter Spencer (1 December 1879 – 11 July 1931) was an American painter who received extensive recognition in his day.
He was one of the Pennsylvania impressionists, but is better known for his paintings of the mills and working peop ...
*Louis Stone
*Richard Wedderspoon
*
Charles M. West Jr.
*
Anne Warner West
*
Mary Perkins Taylor
See also
*
Impressionism
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating ...
*
American Impressionism
American Impressionism was a style of painting related to European Impressionism and practiced by American artists in the United States from the mid-nineteenth century through the beginning of the twentieth. The style is characterized by loose b ...
*
Brandywine School
The Brandywine School was a style of illustration—as well as an artists colony in Wilmington, Delaware and in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, near the Brandywine River—both founded by artist Howard Pyle (1853–1911) at the end of the 19th century. ...
References
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{{Impressionism, state=expanded
American Impressionism
Art in Pennsylvania