Philadelphia’s importance as a cultural center for the visual arts has long stood in the shadow of its bigger and more famous sister, New York. While anything but an artistic backwater, the city in recent years has developed a more notable reputation for cheesesteaks and its excitable sports fans than for its rich cultural history and its integrality to the development of American art. Too few people know that in many ways American art was born here, and too often the city itself has only meekly raised its hand to its many extraordinary achievements in the arts. The goal of this exhibition is to bring together the work of the many artists who lived, worked or studied in Philadelphia from the nineteenth century to the present. The selection of artists is in no way comprehensive, but the exhibition tells an important story about the city’s historical and cultural significance through the artists it cultivated. We paid homage to Elton John’s beloved song in the title of our show to capture the energy of Philadelphia and apply it to this celebration of its visual arts.
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SELECTED ARTWORKS IN THE EXHIBITION
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Elizabeth Osborne, Dock, 2004
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Mary Cassatt, The Lamp, 1890-91
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Morris Blackburn, Still Life #3 (Green Bottle with Blue Streak), 1946
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Elizabeth Osborne, Still Life, 1981
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James Brantley, Dreamscape, 2022
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Paul Keene, Untitled (BlueRed), 1959
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Charles Demuth, Garden Flowers, 1933
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Thomas Anshutz, Woman Reading at a Desk, c. 1910
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Arthur B. Carles, Peonies
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Robert Engman, Iyengar, Variation 2
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Thomas Anshutz, Portrait of a Philadelphia Gentleman (Ernest Lee Parker), 1876
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Thomas Anshutz, Seated Woman, 1884
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Dox Thrash, Untitled (Man Standing Tall), c. 1955
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School of Thomas Eakins, Germania Orchestra at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
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Dox Thrash, Row Houses, c. 1950
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Thomas Birch, The Sleigh Ride, 1838
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Fern Isabel Coppedge, Thompson Mill, New Hope
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Nancy Maybin Ferguson, Summer Streetscape in New England
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Edward Redfield, The Road to Center Bridge, c. 1905
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Fidelia Bridges, Swallows in the Wheat Fields, 1872
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Hermann Herzog, Deer in a Wooded Landscape
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Hugh Henry Breckenridge, Harbor Scene, Likely Gloucester, Massachusetts
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Hugh Henry Breckenridge, Landscape with House
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Dorcas Doolittle, Abstraction #1
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Dorcas Doolittle, Abstraction #2
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Earl Horter, Still Life, c. 1930s
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Arthur B. Carles, French Scene at Voulangis, c. 1921
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Arthur B. Carles, Nude
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Walter Elmer Schofield, Winter River
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