Pennsylvania Impressionism

also: New Hope School · Pennsylvania School

movement First half of the 20th century United States

Pennsylvania Impressionism was an American Impressionist movement of the first half of the 20th century, centered in and around Bucks County, Pennsylvania, particularly the town of New Hope - hence its other names, the New Hope School and the Pennsylvania School of landscape painting. The landscape painter William Langson Lathrop settled in New Hope in 1898 and founded a summer art school, and the Delaware River valley drew Edward Redfield, whose bold, vibrant canvases pioneered the realistic painting of American winter, and Daniel Garber, who arrived in 1907 and popularized rain scenes. As the colony grew, exhibitions at Phillips Mill - property Lathrop bought for the purpose - anchored it, though by 1930 modernist rebels like Lloyd R. Ney formed their own 'New Group'. Women painters of the colony, the 'Last Ten' including Fern Coppedge, round out its history.

Lead image of the Wikipedia article "Pennsylvania Impressionism".
Lead image of the Wikipedia article "Pennsylvania Impressionism".Public domain (credit: William L. Lathrop (1859 - 1938) (American) Details on Googl) · source

Defining characteristics

  • Bold, thickly layered paint applied en plein air, with vibrant color
  • Winter as a subject: snow, ice and cold light rendered with realist weight
  • Weather and hour - rain, haze, shifting light - treated as the subject
  • Bucks County subjects: the Delaware River, the canal, rolling hills, mills and farms
  • Vivid local color anchored by solid drawing and unflinching realism
  • Intimate regional landscape scale, painted for exhibition around New Hope

Key figures

  • William Langson Lathrop (1859-1938) — Founded the New Hope art colony and its summer school in 1898
  • Edward Redfield (1869-1965) — Pioneer of realistic American winter painting in bold, vibrant color
  • Daniel Garber (1880-1958) — PAFA instructor who arrived in 1907 and popularized rain paintings
  • Fern Coppedge (1883-1951) — One of the colony's 'Last Ten' women painters
  • George Sotter (1879-1953) — New Hope painter of Bucks County landscapes

Example works

  • The Tow Path — William Langson Lathrop (1921)
  • Tanis — Daniel Garber (1915)
  • Winter Landscape — Edward Redfield (1907)

Sources

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