The New Hope Artists Colony: Edward Redfield, Pt. 8

"The Brook at Carversville" by Edward Redfield

"After Edward Redfield stopped painting, he began to produce crafts in the early American style. He took pleasure in making hooked rugs from discarded pieces of fabric. Many of these are pictorial, and they often have complex compositions. It is not surprising that some rugs resemble his paintings.

He also made painted chests in the manner of Pennsylvania painted furniture that display an arts and crafts aesthetic, and he made Windsor chairs and other reproductions of early American furniture. Perhaps one of his most successful decorative objects is a tole tray on which he painted a snow scene of an outdoor auction.

Redfield died on 19 October 1965, at the age of ninety-six in Center Bridge, Pennsylvania. Although he had been considered the leading American landscape painter in the early twentieth century, his reputation rapidly faded. His art was suited to his environment, but most importantly it was an art suited to himself."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "The Pennsylvania Impressionists" by Thomas Folk.)