Provenance:

Jim Bishop Auction, Belvidere, New Jersey, c. 1978.

Acquired directly from the above sale.

Angela Gross Folk, New Jersey.

The Estate of Angela Gross Folk, New Jersey.

By descent to the present owner, New Jersey.

Exhibited:

Allentown, Allentown Art Museum, "The Pennsylvania School of Landscape Painting," September 16 – November 26, 1984 (traveling to the Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C.; Westmoreland Museum of Art, Greensburg; and the Brandywine Museum of Art, Doylestown).

Literature:

Thomas C. Folk, The Pennsylvania School of Landscape Painting: An Original American Impressionism, exhibition catalogue, Allentown, p. xxxii, pl. 20, illustrated.

Martha Young Hutson-Saxton, Walter Emerson Baum 1884-1956, Souderton, 1996, p. 73, Illustrated.

Thomas C. Folk, The Pennsylvania Impressionists, with a Forward by James A. Michener, Cranbury, 1997, pl. 42, illustrated.

Lot Note:

Late Afternoon (1933), a visual combination of local color with a breathtaking sense of wilderness, is arguably one of Walter Baum’s most accomplished winter scenes. The artist’s painterly rendition, recalling the bravado of Edward Redfield with its fast, muscly brushwork, endows the scene with texture and depth, the heavy snow and tumultuous flow of the river almost palpable. The painting is structured around the vertical line formed by the path and, further, the body of water, which leads the gaze up towards the far-reaching horizon, intersecting, in the middle tier of the composition, with the sprawling wooded hills as they spread horizontally beyond and over the hamlet, emphasizing the locus of community, the focal point of the painting.

In Late Afternoon, the local is embedded within the vastness of the landscape. The lone figure, treading along a snowy path that cuts through his village but continues on towards the winding river and the confines of the broader Bucks County countryside, anchors the sweeping pictorial narrative of the land in the realm of the familiar. Similarly, the detailed stone façade on the right side of the composition compels the eye to dwell, as it contrasts with the fuzzy, homogenous mass of the forests in the middle ground, conveying the charm and comfort of the community, even as the wide expanse surrounding it suggests its remoteness.

Fittingly, the painting initially belonged to Angela Gross Folk. It was one of her first fine art acquisitions, for only $700. Angela long championed Baum along with all of the Pennsylvania Impressionists and proved instrumental, through her collecting, in giving the group their identity as a cohesive school of painting. She appreciated the deep attachment to the region and affection for the locales of Bucks County that bound all of these artists together, despite their varying approaches to aesthetics. Married to Dr. Gross, whom she met working as his medical stenographer for a number of years in Hoboken, NJ, the couple eventually relocated to Bernardsville, NJ, where they began attending auctions and house sales. Quickly, they acquired several artworks with intention and a keen eye for underappreciated masterpieces by regional painters.

In time, Angela’s collection grew to include major artworks and its breadth widened to include a variety of American artists, including women artists, beyond the borders of Pennsylvania. In 2023, Freeman’s already celebrated her legacy with a curated selection of fine art from her estate, and most recently, Angela’s son, Dr. Thomas Folk, esteemed art historian and Redfield scholar, donated an important portrait of Evelyn Nesbit by James Carroll Beckwith to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a lasting way to honor her dedication to American Art and its representation in private collections, institutions, and on the market.

Early in her collecting endeavors, and testament to her acumen, Angela came across a painting by Daniel Garber in a garage sale in Irvington, which she purchased for $75. Although the seller thought it looked faded, Angela recognized the Impressionist quality of the work. A cleaning revealed the unmatched lyricism of Garber’s skillful use of colors and soft brushwork. Angela’s son, Dr. Folk, made her promise never to sell the painting, as he thought it was the most beautiful artwork he had ever seen, and the work went on to become a treasured family heirloom, turning collecting and the stewardship of Pennsylvania Impressionism into a true family affair.

Through collecting and scholarship, Dr. Folk furthered his mother’s efforts to give visibility to the likes of Garber, Redfield, Baum, and many others. The inspiration behind his own passion, Angela encouraged her son to study with American Impressionist expert William Gerdts at CUNY and ultimately specialize in the field of Pennsylvania Impressionism. After launching a series of one-man shows for Edward Redfield (Rutgers, 1981), William Langson Lathrop (Hofstra, 1982), Charles Rosen (Westmoreland County Museum, 1983), Robert Spencer (NJ State Museum, 1983), and Walter Elmer Schofield (Brandywine River Museum, 1983), Dr. Folk’s efforts culminated with a show spanning the entire school of Pennsylvania Impressionism at the Allentown Museum in 1984, which also received national attention at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington DC.