The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and

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art school in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

."Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts"
Encyclopedia Britannica, Retrieved 28 July 2018. It was founded in 1805 and is the first and oldest art museum and art school in the United States. The academy's museum is internationally known for its collections of 19th- and 20th-century American paintings, sculptures, and works on paper. Its archives house important materials for the study of American art history, museums, and art training. It offers a

Bachelor of Fine Arts A Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) is a standard undergraduate degree for students for pursuing a professional education in the visual, fine or performing arts. It is also called Bachelor of Visual Arts (BVA) in some cases. Background The Bachel ...

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts ...

, certificate programs, and continuing education.

History

The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts was founded in 1805 by painter and scientist

Charles Willson Peale Charles Willson Peale (April 15, 1741 – February 22, 1827) was an American Painting, painter, soldier, scientist, inventor, politician and naturalist. He is best remembered for his portrait paintings of leading figures of the American Revolu ...

, sculptor William Rush, and other artists and business leaders. The growth of the Academy of Fine Arts was slow. For many years it held its exhibitions in an 1806 building, designed by John Dorsey with pillars of the

Ionic order The Ionic order is one of the three canonic orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric and the Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan (a plainer Doric), and the rich variant of Corinthian called the composite ...

. It stood on the site of the later American Theater at

Chestnut The chestnuts are the deciduous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Castanea'', in the beech family Fagaceae. They are native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The name also refers to the edible nuts they produce. The unrel ...

and 10th streets. The academy opened as a museum in 1807 and held its first exhibition in 1811, where more than 500 paintings and statues were displayed. The first school classes held in the building were with the ''Society of Artists'' in 1810. The academy had to be reconstructed after the fire of 1845. Some 23 years later, leaders of the academy raised funds to construct a building more worthy of its treasures. They commissioned the current Furness-Hewitt building, which was constructed from 1871. It opened as part of the 1876 Philadelphia Exposition., p. 65 In 1876, former academy student and artist Thomas Eakins returned to teach as a volunteer.

Fairman Rogers Fairman Rogers (November 15, 1833 – August 22, 1900) was an American civil engineer, educator, and philanthropist. Early life Fairman Rogers was born in Philadelphia on November 15, 1833. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 185 ...

, chairman of the Committee on Instruction from 1878 to 1883, made him a faculty member in 1878, and promoted him to director in 1882. Eakins revamped the certificate curriculum to what it used to be today. Students in the certificate program learned fundamentals of drawing, painting, sculpture, and printmaking (

relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

, intaglio, and

lithography Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...

) for two years. For the next two years, they had conducted independent study, guided by frequent critiques from faculty, students, and visiting artists. From 1811 to 1969, the academy organized important annual art exhibitions, from which the museum made significant acquisitions. Harrison S. Morris, managing director from 1892 to 1905, collected contemporary American art for the institution. Among the many masterpieces acquired during his tenure were works by

Cecilia Beaux Eliza Cecilia Beaux (May 1, 1855 – September 17, 1942) was an American society portraitist, whose subjects included First Lady Edith Roosevelt, Admiral Sir David Beatty and Georges Clemenceau. Trained in Philadelphia, she went on to study ...

William Merritt Chase William Merritt Chase (November 1, 1849October 25, 1916) was an American painter, known as an exponent of Impressionism and as a teacher. He is also responsible for establishing the Chase School, which later would become Parsons School of Design. ...

, Frank Duveneck, Thomas Eakins, Winslow Homer, Childe Hassam, and Edmund Tarbell. Work by The Eight, which included former Academy students Robert Henri and John Sloan, is well represented in the collection. It provides a transition between 19th- and 20th- century art movements. From 1890 to 1906, Edward Hornor Coates served as the tenth president of the academy. In 1915, Coates was awarded the academy's gold medal. Painter

John McLure Hamilton John McLure Hamilton (January 31, 1853 Gilbert Stuart Gilbert Charles Stuart ( Stewart; December 3, 1755 – July 9, 1828) was an American painter from Rhode Island Colony who is widely considered one of America's foremost portraitists. His best-known work is an unfinished portrait of George Washi ...

's work acquired. The annual exhibitions attained a brilliancy and éclat hitherto unknown ... Mr. Coates wisely established the schools upon a conservative basis, building almost unconsciously the dykes high against the oncoming flow of insane novelties in art patterns ... In this last struggle against modernism the President was ably supported by Eakins, Anschutz, Grafly, enry JosephThouron, Vonnoh, and

Chase Chase or CHASE may refer to: Businesses * Chase Bank, a national bank based in New York City, New York * Chase Aircraft (1943–1954), a defunct American aircraft manufacturing company * Chase Coaches, a defunct bus operator in England * Chase C ...

... His unfailing courtesy, his disinterested thoughtfulness, his tactfulness, and his modesty endeared him to scholars and masters alike. No sacrifice of time or of means was too great, if he thought he could accomplish the end he always had in view—the honour and the glory of the Academy. It was under Mr. Coates' enlightened direction that was fulfilled the expressed wish of Benjamin West, the first honorary Academician, that "Philadelphia may be as much celebrated for her galleries of paintings by the native genius of the country, as she is distinguished by the virtues of her people; and that she may be looked up to as the Athens of the Western World in all that can give polish to the human mind." During World War I, academy students were actively involved in war work. "About sixty percent of the young men enlisted or entered Government service, and probably all of the young women and all the rest of the young men were directly or indirectly engaged in war work." A war service club was formed by students and a monthly publication, ''The Academy Fling'', was sent to service members. George Harding, a former PAFA student, was commissioned captain during the war and created official combat sketches for the American Expeditionary Forces.

Women at the Academy

The 1844 Board of Directors' declaration that women artists "would have exclusive use of the statue gallery for professional purposes" and study time in the museum on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings signified a significant advance towards formal training in art for women. Prior to the founding of the academy, there were limited opportunities for women to receive professional art training in the United States. This period between the mid-19th and early 20th centuries shows a remarkable growth of formally trained women artists. By 1860 female students were allowed to take anatomy and antique courses, drawing from antique casts. In addition, women enjoyed their newly acquired library and gallery access. Life classes, the study of the nude body, were available to women in the spring of 1868 with female models; male models were added for study six years later. This came after much debate on whether it was appropriate for women to view the nude male form. It took 24 years before women could take full advantage of all aspects of training at the prestigious institution. After 1868 women took more active leadership roles and achieved influential positions. For example, in 1878 Catherine Drinker, at the age of 27, became the first woman to teach at the academy. One of her pupils, her younger cousin

, would leave a lasting legacy at the academy as the first female faculty member to instruct painting and drawing, beginning in 1895. By the 1880s women artists competed with men for top accolades and recognition. Not until much later, however, did the academy gain its first woman on the board of directors in 1950. Even as women artists were making progress in the United States, they had difficulty studying in Europe. Many of the famous and state-run academies, such as the

École des Beaux-Arts École des Beaux-Arts (; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth centur ...

in Paris, actively excluded women until the late 19th century, and many of the only opportunities available were through privately run, less prestigious art schools or ateliers of artists. Women who chose to travel overseas typically studied the works of master artists in the galleries, not in classes. In 2010, the academy acquired the Linda Lee Alter Collection of Art by Women, nearly 500 works by female artists, from collector

Linda Lee Alter Linda Lee Alter (born 1939) is an American visual artist who is primarily known as an art collector and philanthropist. In 2010 Alter donated five hundred artworks by American female artists to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philade ...

. Artists in the collection include those of international renown, such as Louise Bourgeois, Judy Chicago, Louise Nevelson,

Kiki Smith Kiki Smith (born January 18, 1954) is a West German-born American artist whose work has addressed the themes of sex, birth and regeneration. Her figurative work of the late 1980s and early 1990s confronted subjects such as AIDS and gender, whil ...

and Kara Walker, as well renowned Philadelphia artists including Elizabeth Osborne. In 2012, the academy featured the collection in the exhibition ''The Female Gaze: Women Artists Making Their World.''

Today

Pennsylvania_Academy_of_Fine_Arts_-_Washington_Foyer

The Museum

Since its founding, the academy has collected works by leading American artists, as well as works by distinguished alumni and faculty of its school. Today, the academy maintains its collecting tradition with the inclusion of works by modern and contemporary American artists. Acquisitions and exhibition programs are balanced between historical and contemporary art, and the museum continues to show works by contemporary regional artists and features annual displays of work by academy students. The collection is installed in a chronological and thematic format, exploring the history of American art from the 1760s to the present.

The School

The academy was well known for its longstanding 4-year certificate program. Since 1929, qualified students have been able to apply for and receive a coordinated

program at the University of Pennsylvania. Another BFA degree program is offered exclusively in-house (a recent addition) its

program, a Post Baccalaureate Certificate in Graduate Studies, and extensive continuing education offerings, as well as programs for children and families. In 2005, the academy received the

National Medal of Arts The National Medal of Arts is an award and title created by the United States Congress in 1984, for the purpose of honoring artists and patrons of the arts. A prestigious American honor, it is the highest honor given to artists and arts patrons ...

recognizing it as a leader in fine arts education. In January 2007, the academy, in association with the

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin ...

, purchased Thomas Eakins's work '' The Gross Clinic'' from the Jefferson Medical School. This seminal American work will be displayed at both institutions on a rotating basis. In January 2009, PAFA signed a historic transfer agreement with Camden County College, New Jersey. The "Camden Connection" allows for the transfer of liberal arts and studio classes as well as providing, on a competitive basis, for partial merit scholarships specifically for Camden County College students. Other transfer agreements are now in place with the following community college art departments:

Community College of Philadelphia The Community College of Philadelphia (CCP) is a public community college with campuses throughout Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The college was founded in 1965 and is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. It offers over 1 ...

, Montgomery County Community College, Atlantic Cape Community College, and

Northampton Community College Northampton Community College is a public community college in Pennsylvania with campuses in Bethlehem in Northampton County and Tannersville in Monroe County. The college, founded in 1967, also has satellite locations in the south side of Be ...

. In 2013, PAFA received

Middle States Commission on Higher Education The Middle States Commission on Higher Education (abbreviated as MSCHE and legally incorporated as the Mid-Atlantic Region Commission on Higher Education) is a voluntary, peer-based, non-profit membership organization that performs peer evalua ...

accreditation. PAFA had offered a major in the Certificate and the Bachelor of Fine Arts Program. Starting in Summer 2015, PAFA began offering a low-residency Master of Fine Arts program. Since Fall 2015, PAFA has offered courses in fine arts illustration, which complements painting, drawing, printmaking, and sculpture courses.

Buildings

The Furness-Hewitt building

The current museum building began construction in 1871 and opened in 1876 in connection with the Philadelphia Centennial. Designed by the American architects

Frank Furness Frank Heyling Furness (November 12, 1839 - June 27, 1912) was an American architect of the Victorian era. He designed more than 600 buildings, most in the Philadelphia area, and is remembered for his diverse, muscular, often unordinarily scaled b ...

and George Hewitt, it has been called "One of the most magnificent Victorian buildings in the country." The building's façade draws from a number of different historical styles, including Second Empire, Renaissance Revival and

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

, amalgamated in an "aggressively personal manner". The building's exterior coloration combines "rusticated brownstone, dressed sandstone, polished pink granite, red pressed brick, and purplish terra-cotta." It was the first structure in the U.S. specifically designed for fine arts instruction and exhibition in a consolidated facility. The inside of the building is equally varied, combining "gilt floral patterns incised on a field of Venetian red; ... cerulean blue ceiling sprinkled with silver stars", and plum, ochre, sand and olive green gallery walls. The building's structure combines brick, stone and iron; because of fire-proofing concerns, some of the iron i-beams were left uncovered. :1876 opening notes:

The newly Academy of Fine Arts will bear comparison with any institution of its kind in America. It has a front of one hundred feet on Broad Street and a depth of two hundred and fifty-eight feet on Cherry Street. Its situation, with a street on each of its three sides, and an open space along a considerable portion of the fourth, is very advantageous as regards lighting, and freedom from risk by fire. It is built of brick, the principal entrance, which is two stories high, being augmented with encaustic tiles, terra-cotta statuary, and light stone dressings. The walls are laid in patterns of red and white brick. Over the main entrance on Broad Street there is a large
Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
window with stone tracery. The Cherry Street front is relieved by a
colonnade In classical architecture, a colonnade is a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building. Paired or multiple pairs of columns are normally employed in a colonnade which can be straight or cur ...
supporting arched windows, back of which is the transept and pointed
gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aest ...
. Beyond the entrance
vestibule Vestibule or Vestibulum can have the following meanings, each primarily based upon a common origin, from early 17th century French, derived from Latin ''vestibulum, -i n.'' "entrance court". Anatomy In general, vestibule is a small space or cavity ...
is the main staircase, which starts from a wide hall and leads to the galleries on the second floor. Along the Cherry Street side of the Academy are five galleries arranged for casts from the antique; and, further on, are rooms for drapery painting, and the life class. These have a clear north light which can never be obstructed. On the south side, there is a large lecture room, with retiring rooms, and back of these are the modeling rooms and rooms devoted to the use of students and professors. On the second floor is the main hall, which extends across the building, and is intended for the exhibition of large works of art. This story is divided into galleries, which are lighted from the top. Through the center runs a hall which is set apart for the exhibition of statuary, busts, small
statue A statue is a free-standing sculpture in which the realistic, full-length figures of persons or animals are carved or cast in a durable material such as wood, metal or stone. Typical statues are life-sized or close to life-size; a sculpture t ...
s,
bas-relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...
s, etc. On each side of this hall are picture galleries, which are so arranged in size and form as to admit of classification of pictures, and which can be divided into suits where separate exhibitions may be held at the same time. The art collections of the gallery are considered the most valuable in America. They comprise the masterpieces of Stuart, Sully,
Allston Allston is an officially recognized neighborhood within the City of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was named after the American painter and poet Washington Allston. It comprises the land covered by the zip code 02134. For the most pa ...
,
West West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...
, and others of our early artists, the Gilpin gallery, fine marbles, and facsimiles of famous statues, as well as a magnificent gallery from the antique.

The academy building is Furness's best known work, and served to establish him as one of the country's top architects. Despite being initially praised by critics, by the turn of the century, tastes had changed and the building was not considered appealing. Eventually, steps were taken to obscure its ornamentation to "modernize" it. In the post-World War II era, the building was newly appreciated again, with the growth in the historic preservation movement making people more aware of treasures from the past. The building is now considered a masterpiece, one of the greatest buildings in Philadelphia and arguably Furness's greatest work. The building was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1971 and designated a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places liste ...

in 1975. In 1976 the building was fully restored, both its interiors and exteriors, to coincide with its centennial and with the United States bicentennial. The restoration work was conducted through

Day and Zimmerman Associates The Day & Zimmermann is a privately held company in the fields of construction, engineering, staffing and ammunition manufacture, operating out of 150 locations worldwide. Its corporate office is at 1500 Spring Garden Street in Philadelphia, Pen ...

, and headed by Human Myers. In 2019, architectural firm

DLR Group DLR Group is an employee-owned integrated design firm providing architecture, engineering, planning, and interior design. Their brand promise is to elevate the human experience through design. A self-described advocate for sustainable design, the ...

completed another renovation on both the Furness-Hewitt and Hamilton buildings to accommodate growth within the institution's fixed site while maintaining the buildings' historic details.

Samuel M.V. Hamilton Building

In 2002, Dorrance H. Hamilton made a large donation to the academy for its expansion. It purchased the former automobile factory at 128 N. Broad Street, next to the original building. Designed by Charles Oelschlager, the building had formerly been used as a federal building. The structure was renamed in memory of her husband, Samuel M.V. Hamilton. It was renovated and the School of Fine Arts of the academy completed its move there in September 2006. The building also contains a special exhibition space called the Fisher Brooks Gallery, named after James R. Fisher, an artist who attended PAFA in the late 1880s, and Leonie Brooks. They are the grandfather and mother, respectively, of Marguerite Lenfest, a philanthropist and PAFA board member. The Hamilton building also houses Portfolio, the museum's gift shop.

Notable people

Hamilton Men I Have Painted 176f Edward H Coates

Notable Academy students, faculty and leaders include: *

Charles Andes Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English language, English and French language, French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic, Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*k ...

Thomas Pollock Anshutz Thomas Pollock Anshutz (October 5, 1851 – June 16, 1912) was an American painter and teacher. Known for his portraiture and genre scenes, Anshutz was a co-founder of The Darby School. One of Thomas Eakins's most prominent students, he succeed ...

Thomas N. Armstrong III Thomas N. Armstrong III (July 30, 1932, Portsmouth, Virginia – June 20, 2011, Manhattan) was an American museum curator who was director emeritus of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum (1968–1971), the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine ...

Elizabeth Gowdy Baker Elizabeth Gowdy Baker (1860–1927) was an American portrait painter. Biography Born at Xenia, Ohio, she graduated from Monmouth College where she was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma. She taught at Monmouth for a while until she was dismissed ...

* Will Barnet * Cornelia Barns *

Bo Bartlett Bo Bartlett (born December 29, 1955) is an American Realist painter working in Columbus, Georgia and Wheaton Island, Maine. Early life Bo Bartlett was born James William Bartlett III on December 29, 1955, in Columbus, Georgia. Bartlett’s paren ...

* Walter Emerson Baum *

Anna Whelan Betts Anna Whelan Betts (May 15, 1873 – February 6, 1959) was an American illustrator and art teacher who was noted for her paintings of Victorian women in romantic settings. Betts is considered one of the primary artists of the golden age of Am ...

Ethel Franklin Betts Ethel Franklin Betts Bains (September 6, 1877 – October 9, 1959) was an American illustrator primarily of children's books during the golden age of American illustration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Early life and education Betts ...

* Alexander Stirling Calder *

Al Capp Alfred Gerald Caplin (September 28, 1909 – November 5, 1979), better known as Al Capp, was an American cartoonist and humorist best known for the satirical comic strip ''Li'l Abner'', which he created in 1934 and continued writing and (wi ...

(attended briefly) *

Arthur B. Carles Arthur Beecher Carles (March 9, 1882 – 1952) was an American Modernist painter. Biography Carles was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts between 1900 and 1907. He studied with Thomas Pol ...

* Mary Cassatt * Jonathan Lyndon Chase *

Margaret Covey Chisholm Margaret Sale Covey Chisholm (July 6, 1909 – January 24, 1965) was an American portrait painter and muralist who painted the mural for the Livingston, Tennessee post office as part of the WPA artist project during the Great Depression. Her w ...

* Edward Hornor Coates * Rachel Constantine * Colin Campbell Cooper *

John Rogers Cox John Rogers Cox (March 24, 1915 – January 25, 1990) was an American painter from Terre Haute, Indiana. His style and subject matter align him with the Regionalist (American scene painting) and Magic Realist landscape tradition. Early life and ...

* Ralston Crawford *

Jack Delano Jack Delano (born Jacob Ovcharov; August 1, 1914 – August 12, 1997) was a Ukrainian immigrant who became an accomplished photographer for the Works Progress Administration, United Fund, and most notably, the Farm Security Administration (FSA). ...

* Vincent Desiderio * Blanche Dillaye * Thomas Eakins *

Thomas Harlan Ellett Thomas Harlan Ellett (September 2, 1880 – November 24, 1951) was an architect who practiced in New York City. Early life and education Harlan Ellett, as he was known in his youth, was born in 1880 and grew up in Sherman Township, Iowa, the ...

, architect *

David Em David Em (born 1952) is an American artist known for his pioneering breakthroughs in computer art. Early life David Em was born in 1952 in Los Angeles, California. His father was a petroleum engineer and his mother was an illustrator and water ...

* Wharton Esherick *

Stephen Etnier Stephen Morgan Etnier (September 11, 1903 – November 7, 1984) was an American realist painter, painting for six decades. His work is distinguished by a mixture of realism and luminism, favoring industrial and working scenes, but always ...

* Virginia B. Evans *

Frances Farrand Dodge Frances Julia Farrand Dodge (22 November 1878 – 12 January 1969) was an American artist and teacher. Early life and education The eldest of four girls, Frances Farrand was born on 22 November 1878 in Lansing, Michigan. Her father, Hart Au ...

Louise Fishman Louise Fishman (January 14, 1939 – July 26, 2021) was an American abstract painter from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. For many years she lived and worked in New York City, where she died. Biography Louise Fishman was born in Philadelphia on Ja ...

* A. B. Frost *

* Charles Lewis Fussell * Daniel Garber * William Glackens * Charles Grafly * Marie Bruner Haines * William Weeks Hall * Walker Hancock * James Havard * A. G. Heaton * Barkley Hendricks * Robert Henri *

Edward Lamson Henry Edward Lamson Henry (January 12, 1841May 9, 1919), commonly known as E.L. Henry, was an American genre painter, born in Charleston, South Carolina. Early life Though born in Charleston, by age seven his parents had died and Henry moved to live ...

* George Hewitt * Thomas Hovenden * Frances Tipton Hunter * Elsa Jemne *

Maria Louise Kirk Maria Louise Kirk (21 June 1860 – 21 June 1938), usually credited as M. L. Kirk or Maria L. Kirk, was an American painter and illustrator of more than fifty books, most of them for children. Her notable work includes illustrations for a US edi ...

* Christine Lafuente * Sara Larkin *

Dorothy P. Lathrop Dorothy Pulis Lathrop (April 16, 1891 – December 30, 1980) was an American writer and illustrator of children's books. Biography Dorothy Pulis Lathrop was born in Albany, New York, April 16, 1891 to Ida Pulis Lathrop and Cyprus Clark L ...

* Frank B. A. Linton *

Adelia Armstrong Lutz Adelia Armstrong Lutz (; June 25, 1859 – November 17, 1931) was an American artist active in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She organized art circles in Knoxville, Tennessee, as director of the Knoxville Art Club and as ...

David Lynch David Keith Lynch (born January 20, 1946) is an American filmmaker, visual artist and actor. A recipient of an Academy Honorary Award in 2019, Lynch has received three Academy Award nominations for Best Director, and the César Award for Be ...

* Paul Manship *

John Marin John Marin (December 23, 1870 – October 2, 1953) was an early American modernist artist. He is known for his abstract landscapes and watercolors. Biography Marin was born in Rutherford, New Jersey. His mother died nine days after his birth ...

* Don Martin * Donald Martiny * Elise Mercur, architect * James Metcalf * Alme Meyvis * Katherine Milhous *

Abram Molarsky Abram Molarsky (also Abraham; September 25, 1880 – May 4, 1955) was an American Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artist, known primarily as a landscape painter and a colorist. His work is characterized by rich hues and strong, textured ...

Edward Percy Moran Edward Percy Moran (1862–1935), sometimes known as Percy Moran, was an American artist known for his scenes of American history. Early life He was born in Philadelphia on July 29, 1862, to Edward Moran, a notable artist who emigrated from Eng ...

* Alphonse Mucha *

Taras Mychalewych Taras Mychalewych (born December 12, 1945) is a sculptor, mosaicist, photographer, and writer. Life and art Taras Mychalewych was born in Munich, Germany, at the end of World War II. His family emigrated to the United States in 1949, and settled ...

* John Neagle *

Alice Neel Alice Neel (January 28, 1900 – October 13, 1984) was an American visual artist, who was known for her portraits depicting friends, family, lovers, poets, artists, and strangers. Her paintings have an expressionistic use of line and color, psyc ...

* Brad Neely * Roy Cleveland Nuse * Violet Oakley * Elizabeth Osborne *

Maxfield Parrish Maxfield Parrish (July 25, 1870 – March 30, 1966) was an American painter and illustrator active in the first half of the 20th century. He is known for his distinctive saturated hues and idealized neo-classical imagery. His career spann ...

* Rembrandt Peale * Clara Elsene Peck * Louise Pershing * Jane Piper * Albin Polasek * Howard Pyle * Jacques Reich * Seymour Remenick * Edgar Preston Richardson *

* Peter F. Rothermel * William Rush * Lawrence Saint * William Sartain * Mary B. Schuenemann *

Leopold Seyffert Leopold Seyffert ca. 1910 Leopold Gould Seyffert (January 6, 1887 – June 13, 1956) was an American artist. Born in California, Missouri and raised as a child in Colorado and then Pittsburgh, his career brought him eventually to New York City, ...

* Michael H. Shamberg *

David Sherman David Sherman (1958 - November 16, 2022) was an American novelist who dealt overwhelmingly with military themes at the small-unit tactical level. His experiences as a United States Marine informed his writings. Early life and education Sher ...

* Everett Shinn *

John French Sloan John French Sloan (August 2, 1871 – September 7, 1951) was an American painter and etcher. He is considered to be one of the founders of the Ashcan school of American art. He was also a member of the group known as The Eight. He is best known ...

* Owen Staples *

LeConte Stewart __NOTOC__ LeConte Stewart (April 15, 1891 – June 6, 1990) was a Latter-day Saint artist primarily known for his landscapes of rural Utah. His media included oils, watercolors, pastel and charcoal, as well as etchings, linocuts, and lithographs. ...

* Frank Wilbert Stokes *

Henry O. Tanner Henry Ossawa Tanner (June 21, 1859 – May 25, 1937) was an American artist and the first African-American painter to gain international acclaim. Tanner moved to Paris, France, in 1891 to study at the Académie Julian and gained acclaim in Fren ...

* Ellen Powell Tiberino * William B. T. Trego * Orlando Gray Wales * Philip Fishbourne Wharton * Benjamin West * Anita Willets-Burnham

Awards presented to individuals by the academy

* Widener Gold Medal: The academy established the George D. Widener Gold Medal for sculpture in 1912. Widener was a businessman and director of the academy who died on the

RMS Titanic RMS ''Titanic'' was a British passenger Ocean liner, liner, operated by the White Star Line, which Sinking of the Titanic, sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton ...

. The award recognizes the "most meritorious work of Sculpture modeled by an American citizen and shown in the Annual Exhibition".

Defunct awards

* Beck Gold Medal: The Carol H. Beck Gold Medal was awarded to the best portrait by an American artist exhibited at PAFA's annual exhibition. It was awarded from 1909 to 1968. * Mary Smith Prize: The

Mary Smith Prize The Mary Smith Prize (defunct) was a prestigious art prize awarded to women artists by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. It recognized the best work by a Philadelphia woman artist at PAFA's annual exhibition — one that showed "the m ...

was awarded to "the Painter of the best painting (not excluding portraits) exhibiting at the Academy, painted by a resident woman Artist." It was awarded from 1879 to 1968. * Temple Gold Medal: The Joseph Temple Fund Gold Medal was awarded to the best oil painting by an American artist exhibited at PAFA's annual exhibition. It was awarded from 1883 to 1968.

Deaccessioning

In 2013, the academy sold '' East Wind Over Weehawken'' (1934), one of two

Edward Hopper Edward Hopper (July 22, 1882 – May 15, 1967) was an American realist painter and printmaker. While he is widely known for his oil paintings, he was equally proficient as a watercolorist and printmaker in etching. Hopper created subdued drama ...

paintings in its collection, to start an endowment fund. About 25 percent of the fund will be used to fill gaps in the collection of historic art, with much of the rest to buy contemporary art of undetermined value with hopes for dramatic increases in the future. The painting was sold at auction for $40,485,000, allowing a substantial boost to the museum's then-current endowment of about $23.5 million,Spiegelman, Willard
"Academy at a Crossroads"
''

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' (September 25, 2013) but raised new questions about the museum's mission and whether such

deaccessioning Deaccessioning is the process by which a work of art or other object is permanently removed from a museum's collection to sell it or otherwise dispose of it.Report from the AAMD Task Force on Deaccessioning. 2010. ''AAMD Policy on Deaccessioning' ...

s are in the public interest.

References

Notes Bibliography * ''The Pennsylvania Academy and its women, 1850–1920: May 3 – June 16, 1974 Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania'' (exhibition catalogue). Philadelphia, PA: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1974. * Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. ''In This Academy: The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1805–1976.'' Museum Press, Inc: Washington, D.C., 1976.

External links

*
The original Academy of the Fine Arts, 1869
at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania *

The Academy of the Fine Arts and Its Future ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

: address delivered before the Art Club of Philadelphia by Edward H. Coates (24 January 1890)
National Register Nomination
on the National Park Service website
HABS Documentation
on Library of Congress website
Philadelphia Architects and Buildings listing
of the academy building {{authority control 1805 establishments in Pennsylvania Art museums established in 1805 Art museums and galleries in Philadelphia Art schools in Pennsylvania Educational institutions established in 1805 Frank Furness buildings Museums of American art National Historic Landmarks in Pennsylvania National Register of Historic Places in Philadelphia School buildings completed in 1876 Universities and colleges in Philadelphia University museums in Pennsylvania Pennsylvania state historical marker significations Center City, Philadelphia Private universities and colleges in Pennsylvania