"Maine Blossoms," May
1925.
By J.M.W. Fletcher
A recently published two-volume set of art books entitled by
J.M.W. Fletcher serves as a sequel to the author's first book on
Edward Willis Redfield published in 1996 (ISBN 0-9652402-0-7).
These two new volumes detail more than 800 letters to and from
Redfield, spanning over seven decades and giving further insight
into Redfield's likeable personality and the camaraderie he
shared with directors of major art museums and galleries, as well
as his fellow artists. Also included in these volumes are 426
photographs of Redfield's paintings and a transcript of a
90-minute taped interview with the artist two years before his
death.
Edward Willis Redfield (1869-1965) was born in Bridgeville, Del.,
and between 1885 and 1889 studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of
the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, as well as the Academie Julian and
Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, France, before returning to the
United States in 1893. Five years later he acquired a 127-acre
island property and house beside the tow path of the canal
adjacent to the Delaware River, where he and his family lived for
many years. In 1931 he purchased and restored a stone farmhouse
known as the "Old Bowlby property" a mile or two downstream from
his first home, where he lived until his death.
The early years of Redfield's career as a young artist in this
sparsely settled area of Bucks County, Penn., were spent
struggling to survive, as he trudged the hills and dales and
snow-covered woods with his 50-pound paint box, huge wooden
easel, canvas and other equipment. He made no preliminary studies
or drawings, but painted in the field straight to the canvas with
great rapidity and force. In almost all instances his paintings
were completed in "one go" without any touchup later. Eventually
he began to exhibit and sell his work with help from major art
museum directors who became lifelong friends, notably John E.D.
Trask, managing director of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine
Arts, Philadelphia; C. Powell Minnigerode, director of the
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; and Homer St Gaudens,
director, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Penn.
"Harbor at Night, France," March 1896.
Redfield ultimately became known as the "dean of the New Hope
School of impressionist painters," winning more gold medals and
awards than any other American artist except John Singer Sargent.
His winter landscapes became a trademark of his oeuvre as he
exhibited in major shows throughout the United States,
establishing additional friendships with dealers at major art
galleries throughout a wide area. The sales of his paintings
soared as the popularity of his work grew.
Although Redfield lived most of his adult life in Centre Bridge,
Bucks County, he also purchased a home in Boothbay Harbor, Maine,
where he spent many summers painting seascapes and quaint
shingled cottages with beautiful gardens.
To exhibit and sell his work Redfield wrote and received hundreds
of letters over several decades. Besides the treasure trove of
letters to and from Minnigerode, Trask and St Gaudens, Redfield
corresponded with an increasing number of art curators, art
dealers and purchasers of his paintings. Behind the efforts of
this author to compile is the work of the archivists, the
guardians and keepers of the past, who deserve the major credit
for the material within these two new volumes on Redfield. During
more than four years of research for these volumes, the author by
letter and telephone contacted the archivists at those museum and
art galleries where Redfield had exhibited his work in decades
long past.
These Redfield Letters reveal to the reader some of the
innermost thoughts that Redfield, the man, recorded. They bring
to light thoughts, often humorous, that had been relegated to
obscurity, hidden and forgotten for decade after decade in attics
and basements of great libraries and major art galleries. Without
any research request over the decades these boxes, although
cataloged, remained unopened. This is where these fascinating
Redfield letters were eventually found.
From this treasure trove of more than a thousand letters to and
from Redfield, over 800 of the more significant were selected for
publication, uncovering the day to day events during Redfield's
pursuit of fame and fortune.
"Road to Village," May 1892.
Within the two volumes are 426 photographs of the more than 1,200
paintings Redfield is known to have painted. Of these 1,200-plus
recorded paintings, Redfield states in this taped interview (a
transcript of which is included in Volume II) that he destroyed
over 700 of them. Had he only known that his paintings would come
to life again several decades later, with phenomenal prices being
paid, he surely would not have taken this action.
"In doing research for these volumes," J.M.W. Fletcher states, "I
coincidentally came across a 90-minute taped interview with
Redfield, given in 1963 when he was 93 years old. His memory, his
speech and the clarity of his thoughts attest to his remarkable
intelligence, wisdom and lifetime experiences. I had heard that
such a tape existed but did not know how to locate it until one
day, while covering an assignment for Antiques and the Arts
Weekly at the Armory in Philadelphia, a gentleman from Newman
and Saunders Galleries of Wayne, Penn., told me that he had
something I should have for my new book. He mentioned that he had
obtained the original tape from Redfield's daughter-in-law, Mrs
Laurent Redfield. Although not in the true sense a letter, I felt
it was most important to include it as an epilogue in Volume II
of , since it contains a great deal of information about the
artist's life and might otherwise be lost."
This now completes the circle of information on Edward Willis
Redfield, America's foremost impressionist painter of the New
Hope School.
