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The Most Widely Read Collector's Newspaper In The East Published Weekly By Joel Sater Publications www.antiquesandauctionnews.net
VOL. 46, NO. 42 FRIDAY OCTOBER 16, 2015
John F. Long: Folk Painter Of Reinholds By Karl Pass
ohn F. Long (1894-1984) was a carpenter and house painter by trade but known for his reverse paintings on glass. Thanks to his grandson, Dennis Stephan, his artwork and life are well-documented. Long lived his entire life in the northern Lancaster County town of Reinholds, Pa. The rural Pennsylvania German enclave in West Cocalico Township was once refered to as Reinholds Station when the rail line first came to town in the 1860s. As a child, Long attended Vera Cruz School, a two-mile walk from his house. He married Anna Bouder on June 4, 1914, at age 20, and they raised five children at their home on Main Street. Long was a self-trained artist, producing in excess of 1,000 paintings over the course of roughly 66 years. He specialized in reverse painting on glass, a technique that typically begins with the artist sketching a scene on paper, then reversing the direction
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John Long is standing on the far right in this 1898 photo wearing a hat and large bow tie. Also pictured are his parents, Jacob and Amanda, and brothers James (far left) and Harry.
which were often painted gold. In an interview conducted on Oct. 22, 1978, at age 84, Long talked about how he got started doing reverse painting on glass. Antiques dealer Hattie Brunner asked him to repair a painted glass tablet on a mantle clock door. “Hattie was influential in getting him started,” said Stephan. A lifelong hunter and fisherman, he enjoyed painting wildlife. He painted homesteads and local buildings, sometimes commissioned, scenes copied from postcards, and various prints, including Currier & Ives. His early work was not dated, according to Stephan. He signed his paintings “J. F. Long.” Most of his work was done in a studio on the second floor of his barn, located behind his house. The enclosed back porch on Long’s house was covered floor to ceiling with Here is John Long working in his second floor his work. It is believed he barn studio in 1975. started in the 1930s or ’40s as a hobby and of the image. The drawing is then began selling his work in the ’70s. placed under glass, and the scene “It was word-of-mouth marketing, is painted foreground first, back- and I believe Hattie ecouraged him ground last. to sell his work,” said Stephan. Long made his own frames, Hattie Brunner was known to sell occasionally incorporating par- contemporary folk art in her shop. quetry. Parquetry is a technique of She sold paintings, fabric collages, laying small pieces of wood, and carvings by her brother-insometimes of different species, law, Luke Gottshall (1899-1993), side-by-side to form a decorative and his son and daughter-in-law, design. He also embellished his Walter and June Gottshall (both frames with materials such as age 95), among others. acorn caps and macaroni shells, John Long also made tinsel paintings, mainly of floral stilllifes, and wove splint oak baskets as well. His younger brother (by two years), Harry F. Long, worked at Eberly’s Hardware Store in Reinholds during the ’50s and ’60s and also spent time painting. He painted mainly local scenes using oil-on-masonite board. Harry also did cane-chair-seating and various woodworking, including making and painting children’s chairs. In the ’70s, the late New York City dealer John Gordon made trips to Brunner’s shop and bought work by Harry. It is not known whether he bought and sold John’s (Continued on page 2)
Hattie Brunner’s Antiques Shop was adjoined to her nephew William Heinsey’s General Store, which also served as a grocery. Heinsey commissioned Long for this painting. It is believed to be the only version.
This is John Long and his wife, Anna, and four of their young children. Harry F. Long was John’s younger brother and also painted but was not nearly as prolific as John. He also did not do reverse painting on glass. He painted farm scenes on masonite and occasionally objects, such as stools, jugs, and, as seen here, children’s chairs. Harry made and painted these chairs.
Here is John F. Long and Anna Bouder Long on their wedding day, June 4, 1914.
John Long painted two different versions of the Black Horse Tavern. Here is how the tavern appeared roughly 100 years ago. The building was torn down in September of 1978. Notice the long balcony and green shutters in the early version. This was how the building appeared at the turn of the This schoolhouse still stands at the 20th century. The later version of the tavern was done when the balcony intersection of Swamp Church Road was gone and the structure had been plastered/stuccoed. Long lived down These two winter scenes with elk are in parquetry frames. The tall vertical and Galen Hall Road in Reinholds, the road from the tavern. The frame on this painting was made from lumPa. example has a mirror in the lower panel. ber salvaged from the building.