1921 New Hope / Bucks County School Artist John Phelps Pette Landscape Painting

Description: Antique (over 100 years old) 'New Hope / Bucks County School' oil painting on thick board by listed PAFA, Trenton, NJ-based artist John Phelps Pette (Am., 1881-1960). The painting is signed lower right "J.P. Pette" and on the reverse it's dated "8/1921" (meaning: August of 1921). Fresh-to-market. Unframed. The New Hope School artists worked in the vicinity up north of Philadelphia along the Delaware River (on both sides). A dozen times in my life, I've walked across the bridge connecting Lambertville, NJ to New Hope, PA. That's the area about 10 minutes up Rt. 29 from Trenton. I pass Washington Crossing, NJ along the way. Beautiful area. The most famous artist of the 'School', Daniel Garber, lived in Philly but had a 'country home' about 6 miles north of New Hope. He'd paint on both the NJ and PA sides of the Delaware (sometimes pretty far up on the Jersey side). The primary region is a bit north to be considered the 'Delaware Valley'. But, it's closer to Philly than it is to New York City. For some reason, NY-area painters from Newark, NJ are sometimes included in the 'New Hope School'. It's probably just marketing. Our artist, J. Phelps Pette, lived at 131 Jackson Street in Trenton. From there, he could walk to the Delaware & right across the river is Morrisville, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Pette was also an architect with offices Trenton's old Forst-Richey Building. J. Phelps Pette was a PAFA artist as he exhibited there and he's listed in the book(s): The Annual Exhibition Record Of The Pennsylvania Academy Of The Fine Arts (I own the 2-volume set of books). The painting offered here measures 13 x 16 inches. I acquired it years ago when I could still sometimes find things like this. The supply has pretty much dried up now. When things do ocassionally surface these days, I can't usually compete against the dealers who sell on the high-end and 'trending' sites. The dealers I know, who've switched over from here, charge twenty percent buyer's premium (on li*e-au*tion*ers) and have actually established profit-making shipping operations. It's pretty amazing. I forget if I cleaned this painting or not. I think I did. I didn't varnish it. It needed a little fill and touch-in to the far lower right corner, right of and below the signature. I filled the corner loss w/ spackle and just used markers to touch it in. Looks good enough to me. Most of that corner area would hide under the lip of a frame, anyway. The pictures posted of this painting were taken outside, so they may be a bit orange-leaning, from the natural light (sunlight = warmer than artificial light). John Phelps Pette was an American Impressionist. This painting by him reminds me of another painter of the 'school' named Mary Butler. I think they were kind of progressive although not Modernist like Fern Coppedge. Actually, Pette was a Socialist (!). See pictures posted (taken from the net) of a magazine he was involved in. This painting was done in late summer, 1921. In 1922, J. Phelps Pette exhibited a painting called "A Hill In Jersey" as #592 in the Sixth Annual Exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City. At the time, John Sloan was President of that organization. But, when Pette showed in the First Annual, in 1917, William Glackens was President. The painting here looks like it could be a hill in Jersey (or, PA). While Pette's paintings are rare to find on the market, I did see one he did of a quarry scene. That's also a good subject for artists of this 'school'. I think that quarry was up towards Lambertville. Anyway, on his side of the Delaware, Pette was also involved in the professional art scene. He was a Member of the Trenton Art Alliance. I think I remember he was affiliated with a college in the area, maybe the School of Industrial Arts (?). He was a member of The State Art Committee along with artists Henry R. MacGinnis, F. Ballard Williams, Helen Taber and Raymond O'Neill. If you look in the Who Was Who In American Art or online at sites like Askart, you'll see that Johnn Phelps Pette is a listed artist. He's not like a $50K artist, but I have paintings by painters like that in my eBay store if you'd prefer an expensive piece. Check out my other listings. This is a good New Hope / Bucks County School oil because there's elements to the painting that we look for -- it has the hills, farmhouses, country road, and little bridge. The thick impasto paint is great, plus Pette used purples and pinks in his palette. It's a painting of a sunshiny day in the summertime of 1921.

Price: 695 USD

Location: Pitman, New Jersey

End Time: 2025-01-02T00:28:32.000Z

Shipping Cost: 0 USD