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Robert Spencer, The Grey House, 1910, oil. Photo courtesy James A. Michener Art Museum archives. |
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June 5 through September 19, 2004
Wachovia Gallery
Robert Spencer was one of the most important painters associated with the
Pennsylvania Impressionist art colony in Bucks County but stylistically,
his work was very different from most of his New Hope colleagues. Instead of
painting scenes from nature, Spencer made his reputation with skillful,
evocative views of everyday life, often depicting the mills, tenements, and
factories of New Hope and surrounding areas. He also made many paintings of
the street life and waterfronts of New York City and France, and toward the
end of his life experimented with modernist ideas as well as his own
particular brand of historical painting.
Organized by the Michener Art Museum, this major retrospective exhibition
and the accompanying catalog examine both his life and his work, and is a
rare opportunity to explore tin depth the world of this major
Bucks County painter.
In sharp contrast to many other successful artists of his day, who made
their living with pleasant, idyllic -- and largely unpopulated --
landscapes, Spencer was drawn to the lived-in, more urban environments,
whose slightly dilapidated facades and ordinary working people compelled
him. "A landscape without a building or a figure is a very lonely picture
to me," he said.
His friend F. Newlin Price wrote in an 1923 article that Robert Spencer
"has idealized the clumsy barges of the [Delaware] Canal and covereted
dark silk factories into dream castles..." Through his powerful body of
work, Spencer's deep affection for the cities, towns and people he chose
to depict is apparent, and continues to live.
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Robert Spencer, Sketch for The Exodus, 1927, oil on canvas. James A. Michener Art Museum. Gift of Kenneth W. Gemmill and Elizabeth M. Gemmill. |
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Three exhibits for one price!
See Edward Redfield: Just Values and Fine
Seeing in New Hope, along with The Cities, The Towns, the
Crowds: The Paintings of Robert Spencer and
The Lenfest Exhibition of Pennsylvania
Impressionism, both in Doylestown for one low price! Joint tickets
will be available for $12 that include admission to both Museums and
special exhibition fee (a more than 20% discount) through October 17, 2004.
Group rate of $10 for 15 or more with advance purchase.
Exhibition sponsored by Acme Corrugated Box Company, Colligan's Stockton Inn,
Kreischer Miller, and 3D Printing and Copy Center, Inc.
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