International studio (41.1910)

rate painter of local repute. He soon outgrew the
possibilities of this little town, however, and it was
not long before he found his way into the Pennsyl-
vania Academy of the Fine Arts, where his real work
began. In the meantime his father's commission
business had failed and it was only by the most per-
sistent effort that the young man continued his art
studies by selling the flowers that his father now
started to raise. These were frugal, busy years for
the young painter whose bright, boyish manner is
still remembered by many as he came into town
laden with flowers which he delivered to an ever-
widening circle of customers. While he progressed
steadily in the understanding of his metier he had
not distinguished himself especially during his term
in the academy. He was no precocious prodigy and
it is doubtful if any one realized at that time that he
was destined to become one of the foremost painters
in America, whose work would receive general and
substantial recognition before he had turned forty.

The development of his art has been equable and
constant, but not until his return from France,
some ten years ago, did he really find himself. Up

XXX

to that time he had been unable wholly to shake off
the sterile, academic influence of Bouguereau and
Fleury, with whom he studied in Paris. Despite
the innate robustness of the man his work of this
period is marked by a certain hard, dry soullessness
that gives but a slight hint of his later work.

With his return to the Delaware Valley country,
which he has made his home ever since, he made
rapid strides toward the full and free expression of
his personality. Thenceforth his work began to
make itself felt as a new force in our current exhibi-
tions by reason of its ever-increasing vigor and in-
dividuality. It was not long before this new note
obtained for him marked recognition, and in 1896
the Art Club of Philadelphia gave him its gold
medal. Four years later he was awarded a bronze
medal at the Exposition Universelle in Paris, which
was i'dl I owed the next year by a similar honor from
the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo. Since
then he has been the recipient of nearly every
honor that it is in the power of this country to con-
fer upon an artist, and he has received in quick suc-
cession the Temple gold medal of the Pennsylvania