Woodmere Art Museum, located in the Chestnut Hill

Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Chestnut Hill is a neighborhood in the Northwest Philadelphia section of the United States city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.-Boundaries:Chestnut Hill is bounded as follows:...

 section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...

, has a collection of paintings, prints, sculpture and photographs focusing on artists from the Delaware Valley

Delaware Valley

The Delaware Valley is a term used to refer to the valley where the Delaware River flows, along with the surrounding communities. This includes the metropolitan area centered on the city of Philadelphia. Such educational institutions as Delaware Valley Regional High School in Alexandria Township...

 and includes works by Thomas Pollock Anshutz

Thomas Pollock Anshutz

Thomas Pollock Anshutz was an American painter and teacher. Co-founder of The Darby School and leader at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Anshutz was known for his award winning portraiture work and working friendship with Thomas Eakins.-Personal life and education:Thomas Anshutz was born in...

, Severo Antonelli

Severo Antonelli

Severo Antonelli was an Italian-American photographer born in Fara Filiorum Petri, Chieti, Italy.-Early years:...

, Jasper Francis Cropsey

Jasper Francis Cropsey

Jasper Francis Cropsey was an important American landscape artist of the Hudson River School.-Biography:Cropsey was born on his father Jacob Rezeau Cropsey's farm in Rossville on Staten Island, New York, the oldest of eight children. As a young boy, Cropsey had recurring periods of poor health....

 (The Spirit of Peace), Daniel Garber

Daniel Garber

Daniel Garber was an American Impressionist landscape painter and member of the art colony at New Hope, Pennsylvania. He is best known today for his large impressionist scenes of the New Hope area, in which he often depicted the Delaware River. He also painted figurative interior works and...

, Edward Moran

Edward Moran

Edward Moran was an American artist.He emigrated with his family to America at the age of 15, and subsequently settled in Philadelphia, where after having followed his fathers trade of weaver, he became a pupil of James Hamilton and Paul Weber...

, Violet Oakley

Violet Oakley

Violet Oakley was an American artist known for her murals and her work in stained glass. She was a student and later a faculty member at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.-Life:...

, Herbert Pullinger, Edward Willis Redfield

Edward Willis Redfield

Edward Willis Redfield was an American Impressionist landscape painter and member of the art colony at New Hope, Pennsylvania. He is best known today for his impressionist scenes of the New Hope area, often depicting the snow-covered countryside.Redfield was born in 1869 in Bridgeville, Delaware...

, Nelson Shanks

Nelson Shanks

Nelson Shanks, a portrait painter, was born in Rochester, New York in 1937 and lived in Wilmington, Delaware for most of his childhood. He studied at The Kansas City Art Institute and in New York at the National Academy of Design, and the Art Students League. His most famous work is likely his...

, Jessie Willcox Smith

Jessie Willcox Smith

Jessie Willcox Smith was a United States illustrator famous for her work in magazines such as Ladies Home Journal and for her illustrations for children's books....

, Benjamin West

Benjamin West

Benjamin West, RA was an Anglo-American painter of historical scenes around and after the time of the American War of Independence...

 (The Fatal Wounding of Sir Philip Sidney), and N. C. Wyeth

N. C. Wyeth

Newell Convers Wyeth , known as N.C. Wyeth, was an American artist and illustrator. He was the pupil of artist Howard Pyle and became one of America's greatest illustrators...

 (Anthony and Mr. Bonnyfeather).

Classes

Woodmere provides art classes for adults and children and conducts a variety of special events and exhibitions including gallery talks, field trips, lectures, concerts and an annual juried exhibition.

History

The museum was opened in 1940, founded by Charles Knox Smith (1845–1916), an oil and mining businessman, in his will. Smith was born in the Kensington

Kensington, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Kensington is a neighborhood in the United States city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is between the Lower Northeast section of Philadelphia and North Philadelphia. Not to be confused with the former Kensington District, now commonly referred to as Fishtown, the area modernly referred to as...

 neighborhood of Philadelphia and began his career as a grocer's boy and as an oil wagon driver. He rose to become a partner in that oil firm and subsequently invested in his own oil brokerage and a gold and silver mining company in Mexico.

Smith's collection of paintings, sculpture and antiques form the base of the permanent collection. It is housed in his Victorian mansion, Woodmere, to which Smith had added large exhibition spaces. The museum is planning a major expansion designed by Robert Venturi

Robert Venturi

Robert Charles Venturi, Jr. is an American architect, founding principal of the firm Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, and one of the major figures in the architecture of the twentieth century...

 and Denise Scott Brown

Denise Scott Brown

Denise Scott Brown, is an architect, planner, writer, educator, and principal of the firm Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates in Philadelphia...

. The Violet Oakley lunette

Lunette

In architecture, a lunette is a half-moon shaped space, either filled with recessed masonry or void. A lunette is formed when a horizontal cornice transects a round-headed arch at the level of the imposts, where the arch springs. If a door is set within a round-headed arch, the space within the...

paintings of “The Child and Tradition”, “Youth and the Arts”, and “Man and Science”, have been restored and will be displayed in the new addition.

External links

• Exhibitions at Woodmere