The New Hope Art Colony: Edward Redfield, Pt. 4

"The Island" by Edward Redfield

"As an artist Edward Redfield seemed to be searching for American roots. After settling at Center Bridge, he admired all that was considered to possess an American character, and he discounted American paintings, sculpture and architecture that overtly displayed European features. For example, he criticized Henry Chapman Mercer tor looking to European sources in the creation of his eccentric Bucks Country castle, Fonthill.

"Winter Landscape" by Birge Harrison

Redfield's Impressionist snow scenes make interesting comparisons with those of Birge Harrison, a leading Tonalist landscape painter, who was regarded as one of the premier interpreters of the American snowscape. In general Harrison usually employed simple but evocative compositions that create an intense mood. He painted from memory. Redfield painted from nature on the spot. Harrison preferred twilight hours. Redfield preferred the glaring, reflective quality of midday snow. The snow scenes of Redfield and Harrison best represent two leading and contrasting trends in American landscape painting during the early twentieth century.

"Winter at the River Simoa" by Frits Thaulow

Although Redfield's assertive, painterly style was considered to be highly original, the art of the Norwegian Impressionist, Fritz Thaulow, was the most significant European influence on his work. He had visited Thaulow's Paris studio to select one of Thaulow's paintings for an unidentified patron. In a broader sense, Thaulow's influence filtered from Redfield to other Pennsylvania Impressionists and to American landscape painting in general."

To be continued

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

The New Hope Art Colony: Edward Redfield, Pt. 3

"Melting Snow" by Edward Redfield

"In 1891 Edward Redfield and Robert Henri were at the Hotel Deligant in the village of Bois-le-Roi in the forest of Fontainebleau. Redfield's future spouse, Elise Devin Deligant, was the daughter of the innkeeper. At the inn Redfield, Henri, Grafly, and other young artists would have long discussions about art and aesthetics. It was at the inn the Redfield became fascinated by local snow scenes. He had hoped to become a portrait painter, but it was at this point that he abandoned portraiture, at least professionally, and decided to take up landscape painting as his livelihood. Of portraiture Redfield stated: 'With landscape, if I make it good enough, there are many who will appreciate it. Portrait painting must please the subject as a general thing - or no pay! It's a hired man's job.' Several of the young artists at the inn submitted works to the Paris Salon of 1891. Redfield's first snow scene, 'Canal en Hiver,' was accepted, while a full-length portrait by Henri was rejected.

After a trip back to the States in 1892 for a one-man exhibition in Boston, Redfield returned to London in 1893, where he married Elise Deligant. He always referred to her as 'Madame.' After the tragic death of their first child, they returned to France where their son Laurent was born. The artist commemorated the event by recording the view from the house where his son was born, and Robert Henri painting the five-month-old baby's portrait. Sadly the death of their firstborn was a cause of despair and mental illness for his wife.

After their return to Center Bridge, Pennsylvania in 1900, Redfield began to produce the local snow scenes for which he became noted as the leading American painter of the winter landscape, and his monumental canvases are the antithesis of the generally small and sentimental snow scenes of the earlier nineteenth-century American landscape painters. His works were broadly and rapidly painted at just 'one go' as Henry Rolfe had instructed him when he was a teenager. He completed his snow scenes outdoors, usually completing a fifty by fifty-six inch canvas in eight hours. Redfield stated: 'What I wanted to do was to go outdoors and capture the look of a scene, whether it was a brook or a bridge, as it looked on a certain day.'"

To be continued

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

The New Hope Art Colony: Edward Redfield, Pt. 2

"Winter Brook" by Edward Redfield

"Edward Redfield studied at the Pennsylvania Academy from 1887 to 1889 His instructors included Thomas Anshutz, James Kelly, and Thomas Hovenden. Thomas Eakins had left the Academy before Redfield's enrollment, but Anshutz maintained his tradition. This meant long, careful study of plaster casts and the nude model, anatomy lessons, and dissection of human and animal carcasses. While there, Redfield became acquainted with fellow students, Charles Grafly, Robert Henri, and Alexander Calder. Henri often spent weekends at the Redfield home.

In 1889 Redfield's father agreed to send his son fifty dollars per month to finance a period of study in Europe. Redfield left for Paris with Charles Grafly and met Robert Henri there. Redfield and Henri attended classes at the Julian Academy, a school which basically catered to foreigners who had difficulty gaining entrance to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. His instructors were William Adolphe Bouguereau and Tony Robert-Fleury. These instructors insisted on the study of the model for an eight-hour period instead of three as at the Pennsylvania Academy. But they allowed the students to work as they pleased. Redfield also learned from the other students, who were from all over the world, and many styles and techniques were being employed during the classes.

Redfield was interested in modern painters, not the masters of the past, unlike Henri, who was intrigued by both the art of the past and that in the present. Redfield stated: 'I am sorry! But I did not admire any old masters. I generally went to the Luxembourgh - was interested in Monet, Thaulow, Pissaro mostly.'"

To be continued

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

The New Hope Art Colony: Edward Willis Redfield

"Village of Carversville" by Edward Redfield

"Edward Willis Redfield was acknowledged as the central and most important figure in the Pennsylvania School of Landscape Painting because he developed a style and method of painting that became most associated with the Pennsylvania Impressionists. He was born in December 1869 in Bridgeville, Delaware. 

Redfield had determined to become an artist at an early age. When he was seven, he exhibited a drawing of a cow in a competition for school children at the Centennial Exposition in 1876. Although his father, who owned plant nurseries and sold fruit and flowers, had hoped his son would follow him in the family business, he nevertheless encouraged his son's interest in painting.

Redfield eventually hoped to be accepted into the Pennsylvania Academy, so in preparation for studying there, he received training from a commercial artist, Henry Rolfe. The young artist was given drawing paper, a drawing board, a few sticks of charcoal, and a plaster cast of Phidias' Zeus to serve as model. At the conclusion of each lesson, which lasted an hour, the sketch was complete, and Rolfe would give advice and make corrections. He suggested that a work of art should be made at 'one go' or at one sitting, taken directly from the subject, and even if incomplete, should never be retouched or redone. This was an important method of working that Redfield employed throughout his career. Almost all of his paintings were rendered at 'one go'; he made no sketches to study from but worked directly from nature."

To be continued

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

The New Hope Art Colony: William Langson Lathrop, Pt. 2

"Lily Pond, Lake George" by William Lathrop

"William Langson Lathrop's unique blend of Impressionism and Tonalism creates a visual language that resonates with viewers. Much of his painting from 1900 to 1920 can be characterized as being Tonal rather than Impressionist. The Tonalists favored the prevalence of a single tone above others and preferred the contemplative and evocative moods of nature. Like many Tonalist painters, Lathrop rarely painted directly from nature, but he took many nature walks, where he would make drawings that he would later incorporate in his paintings. As stated by Sherman Gwinn, 'He was not a painter of pictures, but a painter of memories.'

By the twenties Tonalism had faded from Lathrop's art entirely. He came to Lake George to recover after suffering a heart attack, but instead of resting and against the advice of his doctor, he surveyed the area in search of landscape compositions. Lathrop's 'Lily Pond, Lake George,' certainly must be considered one of his most Impressionist works. Lake George had attracted many landscape painters in the past, including members of the Hudson River School.  This work shows some of his most radical brushwork, which is both flecked and broken, actually revealing areas of unpainted canvas.

During the late twenties, Lathrop built a boat which he named the Widge and spent much time making small oil sketches on board. He became acquainted with the noted scientist, Albert Einstein. In the summer of 1937, Einstein joined Lathrop on the Widge, and they sailed along the north shore of Long Island. The artist gave the scientist two of his paintings.

On 21 September 1938, during the great hurricane of that year, Lathrop was anchored off Montauk Pooint when a fishing boat cut the anchor line, causing the Widge to sail across the bay. Lathrop, who was alone on this voyage, jumped ship and attempted to swim toward shore before suffering a fatal heart attack. Although the artist died, both the Widge and his body were found, in addition to his last painting, which had survived the hurricane."

To be continued

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

The New Hope Art Colony: William Langson Lathrop

"Ely's Bridge" by William Langson Lathrop

"William Langson Lathrop was considered the 'dean' of the New Hope Art Colony, and had come a long way from his beginnings on his family's farm in Painesville, Ohio. The farm was located near the 'broad expanse of Lake Erie, ice-bound, bleak and forbidding throughout the long winters and reluctant springs.' During 1877-79 he spent his winters teaching in a little red schoolhouse to a class of thirty to forty pupils. In the summers he worked on the farm, but he always continued to sketch and draw. 

In 1880 he worked three months at 'Harper's' and was counseled that 'This is no place for you. It is educating you straight away from your bent... Go straight back to the farm and keep on studying as you have been doing.' He listened and his work plowing the fields and living in close relationship with nature informed his landscape painting later on. Indeed several critics noted that Lathrop excelled at painting 'raw earth.'

Lathrop spent from July 1887 to April 1888 in New York. He studied briefly with William Merritt Chase at the Art Students League. He stated that he painted three hours per day under Chase and that he was the only male member of the class; the remainder was comprised of six women. Of Chase, Lathrop wrote that he was 'contagiously energetic. No humor. No poetry.'

In April to July of 1899, Lathrop visited England, France and Holland and spent much time absorbing and sketching the rural countryside. In England he met and married Annie Burt of Oxford. He passed his time with long-time friend Henry Snell and with the Tonalist painter, Henry Ward Ranger.

He worked on his art and improved until he was officially recognized after winning the coveted W.T. Evans Prize at the Twenty-ninth Annual New York Watercolor Society Show. All six of his entries sold at twice the price he had expected. The resulting publicity brought him the patronage of Geoerge S. Hearn and William T. Evans. William MacBeth, a noted dealer, soon began to handle Lathrop's paintings. His success attracted a group of students, and he began teaching outdoors during the summers of 1897 and 1898 in the Poconos."

To be continued

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

The New Hope Art Colony: Beginnings

"Twilight After Storm" by William Lathrop

"The Late Nineteenth and early twentieth centuries saw the development of prominent American art colonies. Among these were colonies in Dublin, New Hampshire; Old Lyme and Cos Cob, Connecticut; Woodstock, New York; Taos and Santa Fe, New Mexico, Provincetown, Massachusetts; and New Hope, Pennsylvania. Many developed as a response to summer plein air landscape painting, which French and Munich trained American art students had practiced abroad. Many young painters who desired to pursue careers in landscape painting were attracted to Bucks County for the beauty of its landscape as well as its proximity to New York and Philadelphia.

A physician, Dr. George Marshall, rather than an artist, was most responsible for the founding of the New Hope Art Colony. His property was a 500-acre plot called Phillips Mill, which would later become an exhibition place for the Pennsylvania Impressionists, as well as for generations of Bucks County painters and sculptors to follow. It was Dr. Marshall who persuaded William Langson Lathrop, a noted landscape painter, to come to the area. This long-time friend ended up buying the miller's house and surrounding farm from Marshall in 1899.

In 1902 'The Philadelphia Times' described Lathrop and his surroundings as follows;

'William Lathrop... was lured away from New York some years ago by this bit of Pennsylvania loveliness. The ancient inn he opened and refitted as his home. The interior of the cooper shop he transformed into his studio, and here he has lived ever since with his family, master of the entire settlement, presiding over his eighty surrounding acres and keeping them secure from intrusion and alteration. An ideal place in which the artists may dream their dreams and transfer them to canvas without fear of interruption from the outside world... The little cottages have gradually been fitted up to accommodate extra guests... In some, happy families of art students live the year round...'

Many artists settled in the area because of William Lathrop's influence. Daniel Garber, Morgan Colt, Margaret Spencer, and Mary Perkins Taylor and her husband. His wife became hostess to ever-increasing numbers of visitors at her Sunday afternoon teas. Guests included neighbors as well as Lathrop's students and other artists who moved into the area."

To be continued

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