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Lot Essay
Edward Willis Redfield's Impressionist canvases rank among the best produced by a group of Pennsylvania artists, popularly called the New Hope School. Like many of his contemporaries in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Redfield studied extensively at some of the finest art schools in the world. After his training at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts under Thomas Anschutz, Redfield went to Paris to receive further training at the Academie Julian in the late 1880s or early 90s. Accompanied by Robert Henri, an old friend from his days at the Pennsylvania Academy, Redfield travelled from Paris to the French countryside and the forest of Fountainbleu where he began painting en plein air in the cold of winter.
The plein air tradition pioneered by the French Impressionists was adopted by Redfield in his renderings of the rich and varied landscapes of Bucks County, Pennsylvania. "His paintings were done in the field and straight onto the canvas, and with great rapidity and force." (J.M.W. Fletcher, Edward Willis Redfield 1869-1965: An American Impressionist, His Paintings and the Man Behind the Palette, Lahaska, Pennsylvania, 1996, p. 1). As Redfield himself said: "What I wanted to do was go outdoors and capture the look of a scene, whether it was a brook or a bridge, as it looked on a certain day." (as quoted in Edward Redfield, T. Folk, p. 35)
Once he started painting spring scenes, Redfield's most desirable were energetic works, brightly sunlit, with abundant budding trees and flowers. Spring at Mount Pleasant on the Delaware River is one such work. The foreground is a luminous green, and a tree, blossoming brilliant white, extends into the center of our view. So adept was Redfield's at applying Impressionist techniques, one critic remarked: "Among the men who have done the most to infuse an authentic note of nationalism into contemporary American Art, Edward Redfield occupies a prominent position. He is the standard bearer of that progressive group of painters who are glorifying American landscape painting with a veracity and force that is astonishing the eyes of the Old World." (as quoted in J.N. Lauvrik, Edward Redfield, p. 29)
This painting will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of Edward Redfield's work being compiled by Dr. Thomas Folk.
The plein air tradition pioneered by the French Impressionists was adopted by Redfield in his renderings of the rich and varied landscapes of Bucks County, Pennsylvania. "His paintings were done in the field and straight onto the canvas, and with great rapidity and force." (J.M.W. Fletcher, Edward Willis Redfield 1869-1965: An American Impressionist, His Paintings and the Man Behind the Palette, Lahaska, Pennsylvania, 1996, p. 1). As Redfield himself said: "What I wanted to do was go outdoors and capture the look of a scene, whether it was a brook or a bridge, as it looked on a certain day." (as quoted in Edward Redfield, T. Folk, p. 35)
Once he started painting spring scenes, Redfield's most desirable were energetic works, brightly sunlit, with abundant budding trees and flowers. Spring at Mount Pleasant on the Delaware River is one such work. The foreground is a luminous green, and a tree, blossoming brilliant white, extends into the center of our view. So adept was Redfield's at applying Impressionist techniques, one critic remarked: "Among the men who have done the most to infuse an authentic note of nationalism into contemporary American Art, Edward Redfield occupies a prominent position. He is the standard bearer of that progressive group of painters who are glorifying American landscape painting with a veracity and force that is astonishing the eyes of the Old World." (as quoted in J.N. Lauvrik, Edward Redfield, p. 29)
This painting will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of Edward Redfield's work being compiled by Dr. Thomas Folk.