COMPLIMENTARY COPY
Published Weekly By Joel Sater Publications www.antiquesandauctionnews.net
VOL. 42, NO. 42 FRIDAY OCTOBER 21, 2011
Once-In-A-Lifetime Exhibit Showcases 200 Of Bucks County’s Finest Works here’s never been a better time to visit The James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. From October 22, 2011 to April 1, 2012, the museum brings together more than 200 of Bucks County Pennsylvania’s finest works. Paintings by Daniel Garber, Edward Redfield, Fern Coppedge, and other rock stars of
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successful artists looking for a quiet place to make paintings when the weather was warm. “The New Hope artists were an art colony year round,” says Brian H. Peterson, the Michener’s Gerry and Marguerite Lenfest Chief Curator. “They lived here, worked here, paid their taxes here, raised their children here, made many friends here and, most importantly, responded to the sense of place in
painting. creative soil of Bucks County has ordinary; the wise silence of “But the word ‘diversity’ does- most nurtured over the decades.” Daniel Garber; the nights and n’t do justice to the depth and Harry Leith-Ross, poet of the days of George Sotter; A tale of breadth of the story of the region’s masters of canvas and brush,” says Peterson. “It’s the elusive but essential quality of individuality – what some call style or originality, but is better described by the more poetic term ‘voice’ – that the rich
Charles Rosen (1878-1950), Opalescent Morning, circa 1909, oil on canvas, H. 32 x W. 40 inches, James A. Michener Art Museum. Gift of Marguerite and Gerry Lenfest.
the Bucks County painting tradition, drawn from the finest work in regional collections, will be together for the first and only time in “The Painterly Voice: Bucks County’ Fertile Ground”. One of Edward Hicks’ The Peaceable Kingdom, the most famous painting from Bucks County, on loan from the Philadelphia Museum of Art, will be a highlight of “The Painterly Voice,” as will rarely seen gems from private collections. “We know we belong to the land,” wrote Doylestown resident and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II for his 1943 musical Oklahoma! When you visit the Michener Art Museum in Bucks County, not only are you seeing the paintings created by the region’s finest artists, but you are seeing the land that inspired them. For more than 200 years, Bucks County’ fertile ground has nurtured the creativity of writers, actors, musicians and especially visual artists. During the American impressionist movement, from Connecticut to California and many spots in between, art colonies were born and prospered. Each place had its own story, its colorful characters, and its own personality. Many of the colonies were made up of summer warriors,
Daniel Garber (1880-1958), Tanis, 1915, oil on canvas, W. 46 1/2 x H. 60 inches, Philadelphia Museum of Art. Purchased with funds contributed by Marguerite and Gerry Lenfest, 2011.
their artwork.” William L. Lathrop and his wife, Annie, nurtured the New Hope colony in their home at Phillips Mill. When Robert Spencer needed feedback about a picture, he called his friend Jack Folinsbee who lived just down the street. When Spencer’s daughters needed someone to play with, Rae Sloan Bredin’s two little girls were within shouting distance. “When Lathrop needed to share the latest news about the boat he was building, his friend Henry Snell would wander by,” continues Peterson. “And when wedding bells were about to chime, people congregated on the lawn of Lathrop’s house at Phillips Mill.” What distinguishes Bucks County’s painterly heritage is not any singular, recognizable style, but rather a diversity of “fingerprints” – genres, tools and techniques. It’s this very diversity that is the most characteristic Fern Coppedge (1883-1951), Red Sails in the Sunset, n.d., oil on canvas, H. 38 x W. 40 inches. quality of Bucks County Collection of Marguerite and Gerry Lenfest.
two (John) Folinsbees; the dancing trees of Fern Coppedge; the gritty cavalry charges and musket volleys of William T. Trego; the luminous landscapes and haunting still lifes of Martin Johnson Heade. Visitors to the Michener will hear these stories and more in “The Painterly Voice.” Some Bucks County landscape painters took a different path. These artists were aware of the stylistic experimentation going on in Europe and New York, and decided to give it a try themselves. The artwork pushes the envelope in one way or another: sometimes it’s color, sometimes it’s the drawing style, sometimes it’s the way paint is applied to the canvas. These artists were fascinated with symbols, with rhythm, with surface. Still others were more interested in man-made subject matter – machines, urban environments – over natural beauty. Also, not to be forgotten are the work of artists undiscovered in their lifetime, yet highly regarded in (Continued on page 2)