Frederick R. Wagner (December 20, 1860 – January 14, 1940) was one of the earliest of the Pennsylvania impressionists. He was born in

Port Kennedy, Pennsylvania Port Kennedy was an industrial village located where U.S. Route 422 (Pottstown Expressway) now crosses the Schuylkill River in Upper Merion Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. History and notable features Built along the ...

, grew up in Norristown, and spent most of his life in Philadelphia painting its harbors, bridges, parks, train stations and ports. Wagner studied with

Thomas Eakins Thomas Cowperthwait Eakins (; July 25, 1844 – June 25, 1916) was an American Realism (visual arts), realist painter, photographer, sculptor, and fine arts educator. He is widely acknowledged to be one of the most important American artist ...

at the

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1805, it is the longest continuously operating art museum and art school in the United States. The academy's museum ...

beginning in 1878. Before he graduated, Wagner was chosen to teach alongside Eakins as Demonstrator of Anatomy starting in 1882. Wagner's works were in the annual exhibitions of the Pennsylvania Academy first in 1882 and consistently every year from 1906 to 1940, and in the biennial exhibitions of the

Corcoran Gallery of Art The Corcoran Gallery of Art is a former art museum in Washington, D.C., that is now the location of the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, a part of the George Washington University. Founded in 1869 by philanthropist William Wilson Corco ...

, Washington D.C., between 1907 and 1935. He was awarded the Pennsylvania Academy's fellowship prize in 1914, and in 1922 he won an honorable mention at the international exhibition of the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh. Wagner left the Academy in 1886 to take a tour of western towns and to paint portraits. Upon his return to Philadelphia, he worked as an illustrator for the

Philadelphia Press ''The Philadelphia Press'' (or ''The Press'') is a defunct newspaper that was published from August 1, 1857, to October 1, 1920. The paper was founded by John Weiss Forney. Charles Emory Smith was editor and owned a stake in the paper from 1880 ...

until 1902. He was later asked to teach at PAFA's Chester Springs School, a position he held for seven years. Then he started a school in Addingham in 1912. Some of Wagner’s notable students at PAFA were: Elizabeth Washington (1871–1953) and John Weygandt (1869–1951). This school lasted more than twenty-five years, with classes eventually being conducted in the Fuller Building in Philadelphia. Wagner married Eva Wilmot in 1913, his model for an unknown number of paintings including one titled "Smoking Lady." This was also the year of the notorious Armory Show in New York City for which two of Wagner's works were accepted. "Wag" became a member of the Philadelphia Sketch Club in 1897 and remained a lifelong member there. Wagner was a member of the Philadelphia Art Alliance for many years and had shows devoted to his work there before and after he died. In the summers between 1903 and 1913, Wagner lived in Island Heights, New Jersey where James Moore Bryant supported him. Bryant was an engraver Wagner had met at the Philadelphia Sketch Club. Other summers were spent in

Ocean City, New Jersey Ocean City is a City (New Jersey), city in Cape May County, New Jersey, Cape May County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is the principal city of the Ocean City metropolitan statistical area, which encompasses all of Cape May County, and is ...

where he painted portraits of his niece, Marguerite Brendlinger and her five daughters, along with ocean and beach scenes. Fred Wagner painted all his life, and although only making a modest living as an artist, his work was entered and accepted into some of the most prestigious art exhibitions of the time. He won many awards for his work and his paintings were (or are) in numerous museums including the

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) is an List of art museums#North America, 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 ...

Reading Museum Reading Museum (run by the Reading Museum Service) is a museum of the history of the town of Reading, in the English county of Berkshire, and the surrounding area. It is accommodated within Reading Town Hall, and contains galleries describing ...

Woodmere Art Museum Woodmere Art Museum, located in the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has a collection of paintings, prints, sculpture and photographs focusing on artists from the Delaware Valley and includes works by Thomas Pollock Anshutz, ...

, James A. Michener Art Museum, St Louis Art Museum, Sewell E. Biggs Museum of American Art,

Farnsworth Art Museum The Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine, United States, is an art museum that specializes in American art. Its permanent collection includes works by such artists as Gilbert Stuart, Thomas Sully, Thomas Eakins, Winslow Homer, George Bellows, ...

and Penn State University Museum.Smith, page 13 Wagner's paintings are also in galleries and the homes of art collectors nationwide.

References

Further reading