August 21 through November 21, 2010
Pfundt Gallery

The Philadelphia Sketch Club is America's oldest continuously operating club for professional artists. The Sketch Club began operations in 1860, founded by six former students of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts who wanted to improve their skills as illustrators. Over the years club members have been influential in the development of American art, both regionally and nationally. Members have included such luminaries as Thomas Eakins, Thomas Anshutz, and N.C. Wyeth, as well as the renowned Bucks County painters Edward W. Redfield, Daniel Garber, and Walter Baum. The Sketch Club's 150th Anniversary in 2010 will be celebrated by a year-long series of exhibitions, programs, and events at Philadelphia-area institutions. The Michener Art Museum is organizing an exhibition of drawings and other works on paper by some of the best-known Bucks County members of the club, both historic and contemporary.

Image: Arthur Meltzer (1893-1989), Study for Mural, n.d. Mixed media on paper, H. 12.5 x W. 19 inches. James A. Michener Art Museum. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Davis Meltzer.