Edward Redfield

Edward Redfield's early artistic training took place at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts from 1885 to 1889. While there he studied with Thomas Anschutz, James Kelley, and Thomas Hovenden. Interestingly, Redfield developed one the defining characteristics of his artistic method as he was preparing to apply to PAFA.  Required of all incoming students were finished studies in charcoal and oil. For his application to the Academy Redfield enlisted the guidance of Henry Rolfe, a commercial artist.  Rolfe taught Redfield the “one go” method, in which a work of art was executed in one sitting and taken directly from the subject without the customary preparatory sketches.  Redfield’s mature working method of completing a painting in a four- to six-hour sitting and painting directly onto the canvas seem to have stemmed from what he learned from Rolfe, at least in part; although the influence of Eakins and Anshutz cannot be underestimated.

Robert Henri was a fellow classmate, and the two men developed a strong friendship, eventually traveling to Paris together in 1889. It was in France that Redfield's passion for landscape painting really began. There he was first exposed to working en plein air, or outdoors, which became central to his artistic practice.

Upon his return to the States, Redfield and his family moved to Center Bridge in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, not far from New Hope. He became a leading member of the American Impressionist artists' colony there. Redfield was instrumental in establishing the creative and stylistic bedrock of the movement. His style was marked by an intense absorption in the act of painting. He became best known for the sense of energy in his works as well as his powers of observation and his ability to capture the American landscape with vigor and originality.