National Geographic : 1948 Jul
Artists Look at Pennsylvania BY JOHN OLIVER LA GORCE PENNSYLVANIA, Titan among States, has had its picture painted. For a year and a half, fourteen of America's leading artists roamed the Keystone State, studying its industries, scenic beauties, folkways, and historic monuments. Some set up easels and completed their paintings on the spot; others retired to the seclusion of studios to transfer their impressions from sketchbook to canvas or water-color paper. The composite result is an objective, full length portrait of Pennsylvania. In the 116 oils, water colors, and sketches are a series of images such as might linger in the mind of one who had traveled the Commonwealth's 67 counties from Adams through York, from the New York line in the north to Maryland in the south, from the Delaware River in the east to the Ohio border in the west. Sixteen of the paintings, in full color, are reproduced in this issue of the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE. Dominant theme of the collection as a whole is Pennsylvania's mastery of the resources which Nature provided in such abundance. In industry, commerce, transportation, and agriculture the artists selected the subjects most adaptable to dramatization. Yet Penn sylvania's historic background was not neg lected, nor was pastoral beauty, nor the rich folklore of the southeastern counties, inhabited by the "plain people." A State Story on Canvas These paintings, outcome of the new and growing alliance between art and trade, were presented to the people of Pennsylvania by Gimbel Brothers, operators of large depart ment stores in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and elsewhere. The Gimbel firm underwrote the cost of the project in the belief that such a documentation would be of lasting interest and value and would be a factor in spreading the story of the State and of the vigor of its citi zens throughout the country. Arthur C. Kaufmann, executive head of the Gimbel store in Philadelphia, and the late Jacques Blum, of the Pittsburgh store, were directly responsible for the project, and their idea was readily approved by President Ber nard F. Gimbel, of New York, and the board of directors of Gimbel Brothers. Governor James H. Duff and U. S. Senator Edward Martin headed a sponsoring committee which included many of Pennsylvania's most promi nent citizens. Once the plan had been conceived, the selection of artists and other details were turned over to the Associated American Art ists, in New York. History is full of instances in which cele brated works of art were made possible by the generosity of merchants. Despite this, painters and sculptors, to guard their integrity and independence, frequently shun patronage by commercial institutions. Too often, they say, the patron demands gratification of his own whims or tastes, or fails to recognize the difference between artistic and lay viewpoints. Artists Given Free Rein The artists commissioned for the Pennsyl vania project were given free rein. There were no restrictions, no grinding of business axes, no conscious efforts to flatter regional or com munity pride, no injunctions to avoid the un sightly or to portray beauty where none existed. "Paint Pennsylvania as you see it," the artists were told, in effect, by Robert L. Par sons, executive director of the Associated American Artists, when he arranged the as signments. This was in accordance with the policy laid down by the sponsors. "Go down into the coal mines, into the steel mills, the factories, the shipyards. Travel the broad highways and the remote country roads. Look at the busy waterways and the quiet trout streams. Study the people in their homes and at work and play." When the painters set forth to study Penn sylvania, they found themselves in a treasure house perhaps unexcelled anywhere in Amer ica. Here is a kingdom of contrasts which inspired Rudyard Kipling, after a tour of the United States, to write in "Philadelphia": They are there, there, there with Earth immortal (Citizens, I give you friendly warning). The things that truly last when men and times have passed, They are all in Pennsylvania this morning! An apt nickname for Pennsylvania is "Workshop of the World," for it leads the Nation in 50 important industries and in producing nearly every ingredient of heavy industry.* An outstanding exception is petroleum; yet it was in Pennsylvania, at Titusville, that Col. Edwin L. Drake drilled the first successful * See, in the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE, by John Oliver La Gorce: "Penn's Land of Modern Mir acles," July, 1935; and "Industrial Titan of America: Pennsylvania," May, 1919.