Mary Elizabeth Price

Mary Elizabeth Price (American, 1877–1965) Hollyhock and Delphinium Screen

Exhibited

"The Philadelphia Ten on the Road: The Rotary Exhibit," The Demuth Museum, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, September 6-November 2, 2008.

Literature

Page Talbott and Patricia Tanis Sydney, The Philadelphia Ten: A Woman's Artist Group 1917-1945, Galleries at Moore and American Art Review Press, Philadelphia and Kansas City, 1998, pp. 158-159, pl. 73 (illustrated p. 131).
Anne M. Lampe et al., The Philadelphia Ten on the Road: The Rotary Exhibit, The Demuth Museum, Lancaster, 2008, p. 7 (illustrated).

Note

In 1913, Dr. William Wolf and his wife Frances Harkness Wolf moved into an elegant Queen Anne house in the heart of Lancaster, on the town's historic Chestnut Street. For about sixty years, the stately mansion proudly stood as the musical epicenter of the Red Rose City, where many students flocked to enjoy and benefit from Mr. Wolf's rigorous piano lessons. Wolf began his music teaching career in 1899, the same year he earned his Bachelor's degree in music from New York University. In the intervening years, and while teaching in Lancaster, Wolf earned both a Master's degree and a Ph.D. in musicology, which later gave him the keys to transform his humble house into a refined studio and then into the prestigious Wolf Institute of Music that is known today. Prior to his teaching career, Wolf had studied piano and orchestration with many prominent teachers some of whom included Ferruccio Busoni and Rafael Joseffy in the United States, but also Hugo Reimann in Germany. During his career, he was an associate of many contemporary musicians such as Edward MacDowell and Percy Granger. Such connections, paired with his own credentials and celebrated teaching methods, enabled Wolf to put the real city of Lancaster on the map, and to gradually foster a new generation of pianists genuinely and newly appreciative of European Classical music.

A pupil of Dr. Wolf before marrying him, Frances Harkness acted as his assistant throughout their shared life. She was also responsible for tastefully decorating their new house, which she filled with several pieces of furniture made by the famous Lancaster County craftsman, Henry Slaugh, important books on musicology and Western classical music, as well as fine art. The core of the Collection was inherited by Ms. Wolf from her godparents, Marietta Fairlamb and Charles Carver. The upcoming sale of these dozen works at Freeman's represents their first ever appearance on the market, boasted by a long and prestigious exhibition history for some of the highlights of the Collection, and an incredible state of conservation. All works also have in common their affiliation with the Philadelphia Ten, a name used to refer to a group of women artists who decided to join forces in the 1920s so as to create opportunities for themselves to exhibit and sell their artwork to a larger audience, as true, independent working professionals.

The Philadelphia Ten held its first exhibition in February 1917 at the Art Club of Philadelphia. At that time, only eleven participants joined, all trained from either the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts or from the Philadelphia School of Design for Women (now the Moore College of Art and Design). They did not exhibit again as a group until 1921, but it was truly in 1925 that the group earned its reputation. At that time, the members had decided to develop a touring exhibition circuit, which they referred to as "Rotary Exhibits," in order to bring to neighboring communities a feeling of kinship with Philadelphia and its painters, as well as a yearning for collecting fresh works by young, emerging artists. The exhibit took place at the Iris Club in Lancaster, a sister-town long affiliated with the movement, and filled with eager collectors in search of a new American sensitivity. The group primarily exhibited still lifes and portrait scenes, as well as Impressionist landscapes. This focus not only earned them critical acclaim but also a steady livelihood at a moment in history when women were by and large expected to be homemakers and eschew professional development. Pioneering Mary Elizabeth Price, Edith Lucile Howard, and Isabel Branson Cartwright were in attendance at the 1925 exhibit, and each were gracefully introduced by fellow member Constance Cochrane.

The Collection of the Wolf Museum of Music and Art dates from this defining period. The true highlight is Mary Elizabeth Price's dazzling trifold Hollyhock and Delphinium Screen. This impressive standing screen, housed in an elegantly carved gilded frame designed by the artist's own brother, Ruben Moore Price, is a quintessential example of the artist's oeuvre - one of the best to come to market in the recent years. It perfectly illustrates Price's then decorative affinities, and reveals the deep influence of European Art Nouveau and the American Arts and Crafts movement on her work, as revealed by the prominent use of gold leaf in the background of the work. Over her years with the Philadelphia Ten, Price exhibited at least thirteen different functional screens and panels, several of them more than once. When one of them appeared in the Group's 1935 annual show, a critic of the Philadelphia Talley-Ho described it as "one of the most exquisite things [he had] ever been privileged to see." Such words could well apply to the present, magnificent screen, whose central panel is in an exceptional state of preservation, showcasing the boldest hues and most shimmering sparks. Price's standing screens (spanning from one to six panels) and gilded frames were usually crafted by her brother, Reuben Moore Price, as is the case here. It provided the artist with the perfect vehicle for her decorative inclinations as the screens could be collected as furniture and not merely as paintings.

Provenance

Collection of Marietta Fairlamb and Charles Carver.

A gift from the above.

Collection of Frances Karness (their goddaughter), and her husband Mr. William A. Wolf.

The Wolf Museum of Music and Art, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.