Catalogue Raisonne On The Art Of Edward Redfield

Dr. Tom Folk is currently compiling the catalogue raisonne on the artist Edward W. Redfield. This is comprehensive list of his paintings, drawings, hooked rugs, and painted furniture. This project is many years in the making. It will be the definitive book on the artist. Prior to this publication, the best source for Redfield is my exhibition catalogue on Redfield for the Allentown Museum's retrospective in 1988. The current project should be completed in five years.

There is a $500.00 fee to examine works by Redfield for inclusion in the catalogue raisonne; this includes research and documentation. Please send photos and correspondence to:  Dr. Tom Folk, 14 Pheasant Hill Drive, Far Hills, NJ 07931 or call (908) 766-1257 or email at drtomfolk@aol.com.

Edward Redfield was born om December 18th, 1869, in Bridgeville, Delaware. When he was a child, his family moved to Philadelphia. He studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts from 1885 to 1889, where his most prominent instructors included Thomas Anshutz and Thomas Hovenden. While at the Academy, Redfield became close friends with Robert Henri- who would become one of the mot important teachers in the history of American Art. In 1889, Redfield's father agreed to send his son fifty dollars per month to finance a period of study in France. In Paris, the young man attended classes at both the Julian Academy and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, where he studied with the famous painter, Adolphe William Bouguereau.

In 1891, Redfield's firsy snow scene was accepted by the Paris Salon. While staying at the Hotel d'Elegant, he fell in love with the innkeeper's daughter, Elise Devin Deligant. They were married in 1892, and had five children.

In 1898, the Redfields moved to a house along the towpath at Center Bridge, Pennsylvania. The artist became well-known for his large, broadly painted local snow scenes. He became acknowledged as the central and the most important figure in the growing school of Pennsylvania Impressionist landscape painting developing in New Hope. Redfield's wife, Elise, died in 1947, which brought him to a state of despair. In that year, he took about one thousand of the twelve hundred paintings in his inventory, and burned them in a huge bonfire in his yeard. He felt that these paintings did not represent his finest work. In his later years, Redfield turned to the reinterpretation of classic early American crafts, creating unique painted chests, toleware trays and hooked rugs. He died on October 19th, 1965, at the age of ninety-six.

Edward Redfield

For Sale

Edward Redfield (1869-1965), Plum Blossoms, ca. 1920, oil on canvas, 38 x 50 inches, with signed 5 inch carved black and gold frame by Fred Harer. Provenance: Estate of Edward Redfield- included in Dorothy Redfield’s itinerary. George Redfield, his grandson. Private collection, New Jersey ca. 1983. Exhibitions Catalogue of Paintings by Edward Redfield, the Art Club of Philadelphia, November 17- December 5, 1920, no. 9. Catalogue of an Exhibition of Oriental Art, Period Embroideries, Paintings by Edward Redfield and Harry Hoffman, the Memorial Art Gallery Rochester, New York, November 1927, no. 4. A Retrospective Exhibition of the Work of Edward Redfield N.A., Grand Central Art Galleries, New York City, April 16- May 4, 1968, no. 29. The 127th, Annual Exhibition, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 1932. Thomas Folk, The Pennsylvania School of Landscape Painting, An Original American Impressionism, the Allentown Museum, Allentown, Pennsylvania, September 16- November 25, 1984; and traveling to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. December 14- 1984- February 10, 1985; the Westmoreland Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, March 2- May 5, 1985; and the Brandywine River Museum, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, June 1- September 2, 1985, figure 2:14, illus. p. 41. Thomas Folk, Edward Redfield, First Master of the Twentieth Century Landscape, Allentown Art Museum, September 20, 1987- January 10, 1988; and traveling to the Butler Institute, Youngstown, Ohio, February 14- April 2, 1988, catalogue no. 13, illus. p. 68. Literature: Arienne Redd, “Exhibit Places Painter in Historical Context,” Globe- Times Reviewer, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, October 16, 1987, illus. p. D3. Thomas C. Folk, The Pennsylvania Impressionists, Associated University Presses, 1997, illus. plate 12.

Previously Sold

	Edward Redfield, Waves Crashing Against the Shore, oil on canvas, 18.5 x 21.5
	Edward Redfield, Point Pleasant, oil on canvas
	Edward Redfield, French Roadway 1890s, Will be included in Dr. Tom Folk's forthcoming catalogue raisonné on Redfield, oil on canvas, 32 x 25.5