Michener Art Museum

Alice Sotter


Alice Sotter, private collection
PAINTER
BORN: January 1, 1883, Pittsburgh, PA
DIED: December 30, 1968, Doylestown, PA

One of the early female artists of Bucks County, Alice Bennett Sotter in known for her stained glass work and floral paintings, whose subjects she often chose from her own garden. She was active in the the Phillips Mill art colony in New Hope during the 1930s, which included George W. Sotter, her husband, Edward Redfield, William Lathrop, and Daniel Garber. After graduating from Carnegie Institute of Technology's School of Design in her hometown of Pittsburgh, Alice became an assistant to George W. Sotter and J. Horace Rudy, who were partners in the Brothers Stained Glass Studio. Rudy was the father of Bucks County sculptor Charles Rudy, and Sotter was a student of Bucks County painter Edward Redfield. Assisting George in creating stained glass for churches in their studio in Holicong, Alice traveled to England and France to study glass designs there, and exhibited her work in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. In her will, she generously remembered art galleries, schools, and churches, bequeathing them various examples of her and her late husband's creations.