American Art and Pennsylvania Impressionists Featuring the Papageorge Family Collection

Exhibited

"George Sotter: Light and Shadow," James A. Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, July 29-December 31, 2017 (exhibited as Redfield's House).

Literature

Valerie Ann Leeds, George Sotter: Light and Shadow, James A. Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, 2017, plate 16, p. 30 (illustrated as Redfield's House).

Note

After a short trip to California in 1916 which, for a little while, inspired him to relocate out West, George Sotter eventually settled in Bucks County, lured by “the tranquil tenor, beautiful stone houses, and rolling hills” of the lush region as Valerie Leeds puts it. The fact that his friend and earlier “chaperon”, Edward Redfield, lived nearby also favored this relocation and ultimately marked a new chapter in his oeuvre.

The present work, a bird-eye’s view of a humble two-part cottage nestled in the valley in winter, was historically understood as either a rendition of the artist's home, a Quaker farmstead known as Walnut Grove Farm, located on Ash Mill Road in Holicong, or that of Edward Redfield's - a 127 acre strip of land in Centre Bridge, just five miles north of New Hope.

No matter the subject (in each case the artist's home would be on the right while their studio would be on the left), the painting clearly pays homage to Redfield by channeling several hallmarks of his celebrated style, namely the muted, almost totalistic use of light blues and purples (all beautifully contrasted by the omnipresent stark white powdered snow) but also the general composition itself. Here, the viewer is directly invited in the picture plane by way of the foreground, which acts as a stage, from which the view offers itself. The bare tangling trees, as well as the color gradations on top of the faraway hill and in the sky are also reminiscent of Redfield’s works from the same time-period.