Roger M. Rittase: Pennsylvania Impressionist Church Scene Painting, 1940

I found a recent auction listing featuring a painting by one of the Magnificent Marvin's art mentors, Roger M. Rittase (1899-1975). The seller writes that this work is c. 1940.

Roger M. Rittase

Roger M. Rittase

Roger M. Rittase

Two Paintings by an Artistic Mentor of Marvin Mangus: William F. Walter

William F. Walter

William F. Walter

William F. Walter (1904-1977) Artist and Art Teacher In Washington DC Since 1930

Washington Star Obituary: July 8, 1977

William F. Walter, 73, a well-known Washington DC artist and teacher, died Wednesday at Sibley Memorial Hospital after suffering an aneurysm.

He worked in both oils and watercolors and mainly painted landscapes and marine scenes. He taught art for many years. Born in Washington DC, Mr. Walter was a graduate of Central High School. He studied at the Corcoran School of Art under Charles Hawthorne and W. Lester Stevens. During the 1930s, Mr. Walter was an instructor at the Abbott Art School in Washington DC, and later taught classes at his home. During World War II, he worked on important camouflage techniques for the Navy's Bureau of Ships.

Mr. Walter, who won a number of awards for his work, mounted one-man shows at George Washington University and the Arts Club of Washington, and also exhibited at Harvard University and the University of Iowa. 

He had been a member of the Arts Club since 1930 and had served on its Board of Directors. He was also a former President of the Landscape Club of Washington; former Vice-President of the Society of Washington Artists; and a member of the Washington Watercolor Association.

He is survived by his wife, Evelyn; son, Edward P. Walter, of Birmingham, Michigan; a daughter, Diana W. Dickinson of Loretto, Virginia; and seven grandchildren.

The Landscape Club of Washington D.C.

This was the art club where Marvin D. Mangus was mentored by Roger Rittase and William F, Walters in the 1950s. Marvin won a "best in show" award at his very first group showing at the club, and remained a dues-paying member until the end of his life. Some of the members would drop by our house when they or their friends came to Alaska.

The Landscape Club of Washington is a group of men with a mutual interest in outdoor painting, the pictorial possibilities of the Washington area, and in the promotion of public interest in art and the out-of-doors. It dates from the Spring of 1913 when chance aquaintances in the field developed into firm friendships and, over the years, a growth in membership to include those with outstanding reputations as well as the promising younger men who may gain from such association.

Alone or in groups they have covered thoroughly the environs of Washington in quest of subjects for their pictures. The Club's "Log Book" records many jaunts to scenic spots in this area and beyond, Earlier accounts, which make entertaining reading, are reminiscent of inter-urban street cars, gravel roads, that are now superhighways, woods, creeks, and truck farms where present-day suburban homes, apartments, and shopping centers blot out the gentle landscape.

Today its members often range even further afield, in the United States and in other countries, to bring back a variety of pictures for exhibitions and for the walls of people's homes.Yet they remain ever grateful for the close-by rolling hills of Maryland and Virginia, the Blue Ridge, the Potomac Valley, and the Chesapeake Bay area.

At the Club's meetings comradeship prevails, along with constructive programs which further understanding and develop skills, while its exhibitions are a challenge to the members and a pleasurable and cultural experience for gallery visitors.

Members:

Atkyns, Lee

Barr, William H.

Barth, Max

Bittinger, Charles (honorary) 

Baumer, Joseph

Cassedy, Richard  H.

Coleman, Tracy

Crockett, Gib

Cupoli, James V.

Dunn, Charles A. R.

Eboli, Jules L.

Ecker, John B.

Eyer, Charles Robert

Fairlamb, Guy

Firestone, I. L.

Freeman Stuart I.

Gilden, Meyer

Granahan, David M.

Harrison, Edward S.

Hicks, Herbert (Herbie)

Jackson, Vaughan L.

Jex, Garnet W.

Johnstone, Robert B.

Jones, Ron

Kagy, Sheffield

Loiselle, Bernard (honorary)

Mangus, Marvin

Melvile, Col. Phillips 

Moore, Benson B. (honorary)

Moore, David 

Nett, Charles T.

Oakley, A. John

O'Hara, Eliot (honorary)

Peters, Francis C.

Petter, John

Poiesz, C. J.

Pritchard, Thomas C.

Rittase, Roger

Schmidt, Alfred G.

Seat, Robert

Shinn, Charles C.

Shorter, Edward S.

Walter, William F.

Wendelin, Rudolph F.

Winn, Joseph

A Mentor to Marvin Mangus: William F. Walter

William F. Walter (American, 1904-1977)

A Washington DC native, William F. Walter was a respected designer, cartoonist, teacher, and painter during his lifetime. After completing his studies at the Corcoran School of Art, he continued his training under the instruction of Charles Hawthorne, W. Lester Stevens, Richard Meryman, and B. Baker.

Walter was member of the Society of Washington Artists; Landscape Club, Washington, DC; Washington Art Club; American Polar Society and Southern States Art League. His work was shown in numerous venues including: Harvard University, University of Iowa, Washington Art Club and various museum in the East and South. He also held a solo exhibit in New York City. He was awarded prizes for his work by the Landscape Club and US National Museum.

In addition to his busy painting and exhibition schedule, he completed a series of Arctic paintings for the Navy in 1946 and taught at the Abbott School of Art in Washington DC from 1951-1954.

William F. Walter

William F. Walter

William F. Walter

Landscape Club of Washington Member: Garnet Jex

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garnet_Jex

Landscape Club of Washington Logo 1968

A Blue Globe Hanging in Space -- The Earth as Seen from the Moon by Charles Bittinger

Landscape Club of Washington Member: Charles Bittinger

Charles Bittinger was renowned for his painting of an Atomic Bomb detonation.

 

Bittinger tried to incorporate science into many of his paintings.

Wikipedia entry:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Bittinger

Landscape Club of Washington Flyer 1968

Landscape Club Membership

January 1968

Atkyns, Lee

Barr, William H.

Barth, Max

Bittinger, Charles (honorary)
Baumer, Joseph

Cassedy, Richard  H.

Coleman, Tracy

Crockett, Gib

Cupoli, James V.

Dunn, Charles A. R.

Eboli, Jules L.

Ecker, John B.

Eyer, Charles Robert

Fairlamb, Guy

Firestone, I. L.

Freeman Stuart I.

Gilden, Meyer

Granahan, David M.

Harrison, Edward S.

Hicks, Herbert
Jackson, Vaughan L.

Jex, Garnet W.

Johnstone, Robert B.

Jones, Ron

Kagy, Sheffield

Loiselle, Bernard (honorary)

Mangus, Marvin

Melvile, Col. Phillips

Moore, Benson B. (honorary)

Moore, David V.

Nett, Charles T.

Oakley, A. John

O'Hara, Eliot (honorary)

Peters, Francis C.

Petter, John

Poiesz, C. J.

Pritchard, Thomas C.

Rittase, Roger

Schmidt, Alfred G.

Seat, Robert

Shinn, Charles C.

Shorter, Edward S.

Walter, William F.

Wendelin, Rudolph F.

Winn, Joseph

The Landscape Club of Washington is a group of men with a mutual interest in outdoor painting, the pictorial possibilities of the Washington area, and in the promotion of public interest in art and the out-of-doors. It dates from the Spring of 1913 when chance aquaintances in the field developed into firm friendships and, over the years, a growth in membership to include those with outstanding reputations as well as the promising younger men who may gain from such association.

Alone or in groups they have covered thoroughly the environs of Washington in quest of subjects for their pictures. The Club's "Log Book" records many jaunts to scenic spots in this area and beyond. Earlier accounts, which make entertaining reading, are reminiscent of inter-urban street cars, gravel roads, that are now superhighways, woods, creeks, and truck farms where present-day suburban homes, apartments, and shopping centers blot out the gentle landscape.

Today its members often range even further afield, in the United States and in other countries, to bring back a variety of pictures for exhibitions and for the walls of people's homes.Yet they remain ever grateful for the close-by rolling hills of Maryland and Virginia, the Blue Ridge, the Potomac Valley, and the Chesapeake Bay area.

At the Club's meetings comradeship prevails, along with constructive programs which further understanding and develop skills, while its exhibitions are a challenge to the members and a pleasurable and cultural experience for gallery visitors.

 

Current website:

http://www.wslp.org/

Marvin Mangus: Pennsylvania Impressionist in Alaska

Painting by Edward Willis Redfield (1869-1965)

The magnificent Marv's paintings fall squarely in the tradition of landscape painting now dubbed Pennsylvania Impressionism. He was actually a long-standing member of the Washington (D. C.) Landscape Club. Many of these older artists carried on the Impressionist plein-air tradition, and of course, Marv grew up in Altoona, Pennsylvania. He brought these traditions to his landscapes of Pennsylvania, Alaska, and elsewhere. He was among the last of a long line of painters and was working against the trend of art throughout the fifties to two-thousands. As for me, enjoying works like these was a lifelong experience, and quite a different world than the art I studied in college.

Here's an collector-oriented article on Pennsylvania Impressionism I found online:

Pennsylvania Impressionists: Valued at Last
by Dennis Gaffney

More paintings by Pennsylvania Impressionists are appearing on the market. Walter Emerson Baum and other Pennsylvania Impressionists often painted winter scenes. Each Pennsylvania Impressionist had his own style. Pennsylvania Impressionists painted outside the state as well.

Most artists live poor, and painter Edward Redfield certainly qualified—but he was also resourceful. Legend has it that Redfield, who painted most of his canvases in the first half of the 20th century, would set up a large target near his home on the banks of the Delaware River. Coal barges would float by, and invariably, the men on board couldn't seem to resist lobbing chunks of coal to try and hit the target by. After the sailors had had their fun, Redfield would gather up all the attempts and bring them home to heat his house.

More on the Pennsylvania Impressionist school, a group of painters who gathered in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area at the beginning of the 20th century:

So it's no small irony that Redfield's paintings and those done by others of so-called Pennsylvania Impressionist school—a group of painters who gathered in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area at the beginning of the 20th century—would sell for as much as an entire barge-full of coal today.

"This is one of the hottest and most keenly followed areas in American art right now," says Alasdair Nichol, senior vice president at Freeman's, Philadelphia, America's oldest auction house. "A lot of collectors are very passionate about this area."

We asked Alasdair to educate those interested in the Pennsylvania Impressionists, sometimes also called the Bucks County Impressionists or the New Hope School, and provide some advice about collecting their paintings.

Who They Were:

In 1898, Redfield and another artist, William L. Lathrop, both came to Bucks County, located about 40 miles northeast of Philadelphia. Their presence attracted a small cadre of other Impressionists in the early 1900s. Among the painters attracted to the area were Daniel Garber, an influential teacher; Walter Baum, one of the most prolific painters in the region; and Fern Coppedge, the leading woman painter in the group.

Since the 1880s, the Impressionist style had been taken up by a host of American painters, including Mary Cassatt, J. Alden Weir, Theodore Robinson and John Twachtman. Like them, Redfield and the Pennsylvania Impressionists painted landscapes using the short brush strokes, bold colors, and a devotion to the plein-air style that was characteristic of all Impressionists. Redfield, one of the most popular painters of his day, sometimes strapped his canvas to a tree on windy days, even blustery winter ones, and often finishing his paintings in a single sitting.

"The New Hope Impressionists are not distinguished by their style as much as the landscape they lived in and painted," Alasdair says. "They were not known for still-lifes or paintings of people. They had a strong connection to New Hope and the Delaware River. They painted the barns and hills and valleys in the area. Frequently they did winter scenes."

Their Resurgence
By 1915, the New Hope Pennsylvania area was a full-blown Impressionist art colony, although perhaps less known than other regional Impressionist groups, such as those in Cos Cob, Old Lyme, and Connecticut; Brown County, Indiana; and California coastal communities such as Laguna Beach. All that changed in the 1980s, when collectors began looking anew at the New Hope Impressionists—and dramatically bidding up their value.

"I see their resurgence as redressing an imbalance in the marketplace," Alasdair explains. "A lot of the American Impressionists such as Childe Hassam and William Merritt Chase were becoming so expensive that collectors looked around and saw the Pennsylvania Impressionists and said, 'These are pretty good,' and they started latching on to them. I think these collectors found a group of painters who could stand up well against these other artists."

Increased demand through the 1990s has only driven prices higher. A Redfield painting, Spring at Point Pleasant, sold at auction for $68,500 in 1994. In 2000, the same painting sold for $358,000. One Redfield and one Garber painting have each cracked the half-million-dollar milestone. Paintings by Bucks County Impressionists such as John Folinsbee and Kenneth Nunamaker, which once sold for a few thousand dollars, now land well into the five-figure range, Alasdair notes.

Still, Alasdair says that if buyers use patience and intelligence, they can still get a Bucks County Impressionist painting for under $10,000, even under $5,000. "Many of these paintings are still relatively affordable," he says.

Whom to Choose
To land affordable examples of New Hope Impressionists, Alasdair recommends collectors stay away from the stars in the group, such as Redfield and Garber. That still leaves a lot of painters in a broad price range to choose from, including Baum, Coppedge, Folinsbee, Nunamaker, Lathrop, as well as Clarence Johnson, Roy C. Nuse, M. Elizabeth Price, Charles Rosen, Harry Leith-Ross, Walter Elmer Schofield, Henry Bayley Snell, George Sotter and Robert Spencer.

Baum, for example, was extremely prolific (his wife reportedly sent him out to paint each day to make sure he could earn enough to support his family) and produced over 5,000 paintings during his career. "Now, that can be a bit of a problem because his work is also very variable," Alasdair says. "And when you have artists who are prolific and variable, it can quite often lead to fakes." Alasdair says that the vast majority of authentic Baums, however, which include many fine paintings, sell for under $10,000. Alasdair estimated a lovely winter barn scene by Baum that appeared at the Seattle Antiques Roadshow in the summer of 2002 to be worth from $4,000 to $6,000.

"Go to the auctions, go to the galleries, study the artist you are considering buying," Alasdair recommends. "There is no substitute for handling the work and seeing it. Then compare prices. What everybody wants is something in original condition in an original frame. That's the ideal. People won't pay as much for something that's been restored or damaged."

Impressions Outside Pennsylvania
If you like the work of a particular painter in this school, but you are not attached to the New Hope area, you can find less expensive examples of other locations these artists painted. Redfield spent many summers in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, for example, and the paintings he did there generally are less expensive than his Pennsylvania canvases. The same is true of the earlier landscapes Redfield did in France, and the same is generally true of what Coppedge did in Gloucester, Massachusetts, or Schofield on the south coast of England.

Painting by George Sotter (1879-1953)

If you don't mind veering from oil paintings, the medium usually used by these painters, you can also save some money. Later paintings by Antonio Martino, for example, routinely sell for under $5,000, and if you like his watercolors, they are even less expensive. Avoiding paintings that still have their original frames, especially valuable original frames done by Frederick Harer or his apprentice Bernard Badura, can also trim a few thousand dollars off a sales price. Another way to save money? Alasdair's final recommendation: "Avoid the popular snow scenes."