1. Roswell Weidner was an American artist known for his paintings, charcoal and pastel drawings, and prints.
39 Facts About Roswell Weidner
1. 2.
Roswell Weidner was a student at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts city school and country school in Chester Springs, and the Barnes Foundation.
3.
Roswell Weidner began teaching at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1938.
4.
Roswell Weidner was associated with the academy for 66 years, first as a student and later as a teacher, until his retirement in 1996.
5.
Roswell Weidner was born in Reading, Pennsylvania on September 18,1911.
6.
Roswell Weidner's father, Harry, was an iron puddler who lost his job and the family savings in the Great Depression.
7.
Harry Roswell Weidner worked on road crews as part of WPA and made bootleg liquor.
8.
Roswell Weidner's youth included hunting and fishing with his father, which provided still life subjects for his early artwork.
9.
Roswell Weidner was a member of the Reading Senior High School art club which took frequent trips to nearby art shows.
10.
In 1930, Roswell Weidner received a scholarship from Reading Senior High School in Reading, Pennsylvania to attend the country school of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Chester Springs.
11.
Roswell Weidner got odd jobs at the school including working for the English gardener mowing lawns, weeding, cleaning out the swimming pool, and doing dishes.
12.
Roswell Weidner was known for his energy and strength which was needed to maintain the gardens on this large property.
13.
Roswell Weidner attended the country school until 1934 when PAFA closed it as a year-round school.
14.
Roswell Weidner completed his studies at PAFA's city school in Philadelphia in 1936.
15.
Roswell Weidner met Doris Kunzie at Chester Springs Art School whom he married in 1938.
16.
Roswell Weidner turned 25 in September 1936 and aged out of the NYA.
17.
Roswell Weidner was later assigned to the Museum Project in West Philadelphia and created animals for dioramas for museums.
18.
Roswell Weidner requested a transfer to the Painting Section where he had to create one oil painting per month.
19.
Roswell Weidner created a Portrait of Dox Thrash while they worked together.
20.
In 1938, Roswell Weidner was offered and accepted a teaching position at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
21.
Roswell Weidner left the WPA at this time and was not part of WPA when it was liquidated in 1943.
22.
Roswell Weidner's teaching and art were interrupted in 1941 with the advent of World War II.
23.
Roswell Weidner was laid off from PAFA and took night courses to be able to read blueprints.
24.
Roswell Weidner returned to teaching painting, drawing and lithography at PAFA and the Philadelphia College of Art.
25.
Roswell Weidner took over management of the PAFA evening school and boosted attendance from 28 to over 200 per semester in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
26.
Until the mid-1950s, Roswell Weidner was content to paint in the style of his early teachers at the Academy that included Henry McCarter, George Matthews Harding, Daniel Garber, Francis Wayland Speight, and Joseph Pearson Jr.
27.
Roswell Weidner described himself as a Jack-of-all Trades since he was proficient in landscape, portrait, figure and still life painting.
28.
Roswell Weidner's work became more ambitious in scale and incorporated the Oriental concept of space while retaining Western form of modeling, light and perspective.
29.
Roswell Weidner drove his emerald green Ford van to Maine to paint views of oceans waves crashing against the shore.
30.
The Philadelphia Inquirer Art Critic from 1962 to 2012 was Victoria Donohoe, who wrote the following about Roswell Weidner's 1981 show at the Marian Locks Gallery in Philadelphia:.
31.
Roswell Weidner hasn't attained the extraordinary refinement of their observation of momentary effects of light and color, but there's a robust directness in Roswell Weidner's work and fidelity of record as he zeroes in on the ground plane without looking skyward at all.
32.
Roswell Weidner takes the colors of nature and heightens them considerably.
33.
Doris and Roswell Weidner went to art school together at Chester Springs and PAFA.
34.
Doris Kunzie Roswell Weidner continued to paint and live on the farm after their divorce until her death in 2000.
35.
The second part of his personal life started in 1957 when Roswell Weidner married his second wife, Marilyn Kemp Roswell Weidner.
36.
Marilyn Kemp Roswell Weidner founded the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts in 1977 in Philadelphia, PA, with the help of her husband.
37.
Roswell Weidner retired from teaching at PAFA in 1996 at the age of 85.
38.
Roswell Weidner died in his home in Philadelphia with his wife Marilyn and his daughters by his side.
39.
Roswell Weidner's ashes were scattered in the New Jersey Pine Barrens.