In the Valley
The collection of Gerry and Marguerite Lenfest illustrates the long history of art in Bucks County
The collection of Gerry and Marguerite Lenfest illustrates the long history of art in Bucks County
In 1999, Gerry and Marguerite Lenfest gave a gift to the Michener Art Museum of 59 Pennsylvania Impressionist paintings that would prove to be transformative for the institution. “It was a game changer for this institution to have such a large gift, and such important works, all in one fell swoop—along with an endowment,” says the Michener’s executive director Kathleen V. Jameson. “It really transformed the Michener, and is in part why we have the focus that we have today on the Delaware Valley, and especially Bucks County.”
The Delaware Valley works had a special meaning to the Lenfests. It’s where they made their life together as Gerry built up Suburban Cable, which he sold to Comcast in 2000. Gerry also grew up in the valley, on a prerevolutionary War farm in Stockton, New Jersey.
“I was enamored with these artists,” Lenfest told The Morning Caller at the time of the donation.“i walked in the same areas that these artists painted in, and I feel the same love of landscape they felt when they were alive.”
The Lenfests followed up their first gift in 2010 with another significant donation. Again, it featured the work of Pennsylvania painters, although this group of artworks pushed further into the 20th century with modernist works from Charles F. Ramsey, Louis Stone, Charles Rosen and more.
Together, these two extraordinary donations gave the Michener the ability to tell the full story of the history of art in the Delawarevalley.they will do just that in the upcoming exhibition Impressionism to Modernism:the Lenfest Collection of American Art, which opens September 28.
Gerry Lenfest passed away last year, and Jameson says,“we really wanted to do something to honor him and his wife, Marguerite.”though portions of the Lenfest collection have been exhibited at the museum before, this is the first time both gifts will be displayed together
in their entirety. More than 100 works from 30 artists will be shown together in the museum’s Martin Wing, representing six decades of art from the 1890s to the 1950s.
The exhibition will be organized chronologically to show the depth and breadth of the region’s art history. “It is an incredible story about the development of American art—it has those Pennsylvania roots, but it’s really a part of American art writ large,” Jameson says of the show.“we can tell that story in a way that no one else can.” Impressionism dominated the region in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.william Lathrop established an art colony in the mill town of
New Hope, Pennsylvania.the bucolic landscapes along the Delaware
River attracted artists including
Edward Redfield and Daniel Garber. Impressionist art thrived longer in Bucks County than it did in America’s big cities, but in the 1920s and ’30s, with the arrival of artists like Ramsey and Lloyd Ney, modernism began to make its mark.and the Michener exhibition tells the entire story. Redfield was a particular favorite of the Lenfests, and 11 of his paintings will be on display in the exhibition—the most of any artist. He studied in France with William-adolphe Bouguereau and admired the paintings of Monet and Pissarro before returning to the United States and settling at the art colony. Renowned for his winter landscapes, Redfield’s The Upper Delaware will be on view as an outstanding example of the genre. In it, icy floes on the water float about the snow-covered bank of the river as an unseen sun illuminates leafless trees and plants. Despite the monochrome of the season, the colors in the painting still feel bold and warm. “I’m really proud of the fact that the collection includes works by women, notably Fern Coppedge, who’s one of the great American artists of the early 20th century,” says Jameson. Coppedge settled at New Hope two decades after its founding and, like Garber, she is known for her snowy Pennsylvania
landscapes. On view contrasting these winter scenes is her painting Sunday Morning, which depicts a harbor on a bright summer morning. Brightly colored buildings decorate a tree-lined hill, while sailboats dot the blue water in the background.
Rosen lived in the New Hope art colony for nearly two decades, and during that time his work underwent a radical change.when he arrived in Bucks County in 1903, he favored the impressionist style of his friends Garber and Redfield. “Rosen’s painting Opalescent Morning was beloved by the Lenfests,” says Jameson. The circa 1909 painting is a close-up, impressionistic view of a flowering plant
with a river in the background. By the 1910s, however, Rosen had begun to experiment with his style, and by the end of the decade, his paintings had taken on a distinctly cubist style.
In the spirit of honoring the Pennsylvania art community, the Michener will hold a series of programs in conjunction with the Lenfest exhibition that highlight the region. Amanda C. Burdan, curator at the Brandywine River Museum of Art in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, will give a guest lecture titled “America’s Impressionism: Echoes of a Revolution,” which explores why the artistic movement was so popular in the United States for so long.
Laura Turner Igoe, who joined the Michener Art Museum as curator of American art in July, will discuss the industry that flourished along the Delaware River in the early 20th century, and how artists dealt with the changing landscape in her talk, “Meadows and Mills.”
With their gifts, Gerry and Marguerite Lenfest positioned the Michener to become a significant institution of American art, and the museum in turn is thrilled to showcase their generosity.“because we have such a great concentration of work from this region that was such a hotbed for American art, to be able to see them all together is a unique opportunity. I do hope people will take advantage of that,” Jameson says. “We’re delighted to honor Gerry and Marguerite in this way.”
Impressionism to Modernism will remain on view at the Michener through January 5, 2020.