Walter Stuempfig (January 26, 1914 – November 29, 1970) was an American artist and teacher.
Biography
He was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania on January 26, 1914, to a moderately wealthy family.
After graduation from the
Germantown Academy
Germantown Academy, informally known as GA and originally known as the Union School, is the oldest nonsectarian day school in the United States. The school was founded on December 6, 1759, by a group of prominent Germantown citizens in the Gree ...
, he enrolled as an architecture student in the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
. In October 1931 he transferred to 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.Henry McCarter,
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 ...
, and Francis Speight.Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts 1972. From 1932 to 1966 he exhibited regularly at the Pennsylvania Academy's Annual Exhibitions.
In 1935 he married Lila Hill, a sculptor who had also studied at the academy.
Stuempfig was a prolific painter whose works number over 1500. His paintings sold steadily; purchasers from his first solo show in New York in 1943 included the
Whitney Museum
The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District, Manhattan, Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude ...
and the
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...
.Salpeter 1948. He painted figure compositions,
landscapes
A landscape is the visible features of an area of Terrestrial ecoregion, land, its landforms, and how they integrate with Nature, natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionar ...
and architectural subjects,
still life
A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, m ...
s, and portraits; all in a style of romantic realism that fell outside the artistic mainstream of his time.
Robert Sturgis Ingersoll
Robert Sturgis Ingersoll, Sr. (December 16, 1891September 12, 1973) was president of the Philadelphia Museum of Art from 1948 to 1964.
Early life and family
Robert Sturgis Ingersoll was born December 16, 1891, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a son ...
has written of him:
A layman's chat with him would constitute a lesson in late 16th century and early 17th century Italian art. His heroes were
Caravaggio
Michelangelo Merisi (Michele Angelo Merigi or Amerighi) da Caravaggio, known as simply Caravaggio (, , ; 29 September 1571 – 18 July 1610), was an Italian painter active in Rome for most of his artistic life. During the final four years of hi ...
,
Degas
Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings.
Degas also produced bronze sculptures, prints and drawings. Degas is espec ...
and
Eakins Eakins is an English surname. People with this name include:
*Dallas Eakins (born 1967), Canadian ice hockey defenseman and head coach
*Jim Eakins (born 1946), American basketball player
*John Eakins (1923/4–1998), Canadian politician
*Peter Eak ...
. One would risk acrimonious rebuttal if making a disparaging remark with respect to any one of them and earn a more violent rebuttal to a remark in praise of American Expressionism.
From 1948 to 1970 he taught composition and drawing 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.
He died in
Ocean City, New Jersey
Ocean City is a city in Cape May County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is the principal city of the Ocean City metropolitan statistical area, which encompasses all of Cape May County and is part of the Philadelphia- Wilmington- Camden, P ...