Since the Colonial era, Pennsylvania has been a significant force in American art."

Mary Cassatt's "Mother and Two Children," 1901, is among 38 works by as many artists in "Artists of the Commonwealth: Realism and Its Response in Pennsylvania Painting, 1900-1950" at the Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Greensburg. Click photo for larger image. "Artists of the Commonwealth: Realism and Its Response in Pennsylvania Painting, 1900 - 1950" Where: Westmoreland Museum of American Art, 221 N. Main St., Greensburg. When: Through May 21. Events: 7 p.m. Thursday - gallery talk in the exhibition by Westmoreland curator Barbara Jones. 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. April 28 - "Pennsylvania's Painters: Emblems of American Art, symposium with Fahlman, O'Toole and Pittsburgh artist Charles Biddle (registration required). Hours: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday and until 9 p.m. Thursday. Admission: $3 suggested donation, under 12 free. Catalog: 72 pages, color illustrated, paperback, $24.95. Travels to: Loretto, Erie and Doylestown. Information: 724-837-1500 or Westmoreland Museum of American Art.

So begins Betsy Fahlman's catalog essay for the comely "Artists of the Commonwealth: Realism and Its Response in Pennsylvania Painting, 1900-1950" at the Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Greensburg.

The visually sumptuous exhibition comprises work by 38 artists, native to and/or painting in Pennsylvania during the first half of the 20th century, whose expression was based upon representational foundations.

Fahlman, an art historian who specializes in American art and teaches at Arizona State University, discusses the historic incubators of the state's artistic culture that contributed to this prominence: the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia; the International exhibition of The Carnegie Institute (now Carnegie Museum of Art); and Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University). Against that backdrop, she braids the exhibited artworks and artists into an easy-to-follow story of evolving times and expression.

The exhibition, likewise, progresses in somewhat chronological order, revealing the shift from traditional approaches and subject matter to expression influenced by the exciting changes occurring in Paris, as American artists went abroad to live and study, avant-garde French art began to be exhibited in New York, and, finally, European artists fleeing World War II arrived in America.

Beginning with A. Bryan Wall's genre painting, "Shepherd and Sheep in Winter Landscape"; Albert King's still life, "Watermelon on a Wood Crate"; and Henry Ossawa Tanner's impressionistic landscape literally out of fin de siecle Paris, "The Seine," it concludes with the likes of Roy Hilton's surrealistic landscape "Light Snow" and an untitled abstract work by William Baziotes.

George Ericson, using the pseudonym Eugene Iverd, gained fame as an illustrator for such publications as the "Saturday Evening Post." Children, as in "Young Scientist," 1932, were his preferred subject. Click photo for larger image.

There are many delights and surprises, including works not usually selected for such exhibitions -- for example, the adventuresome illustration for the cover of Jules Verne's "The Mysterious Island" by N.C. Wyeth, father of Andrew, and Virginia Cuthbert's bleak "Slum Clearance on Ruch's Hill, Pittsburgh," which was exhibited in the 1939 Carnegie International.

The exhibition is the second organized in response to "an initiative of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts to stimulate collection sharing -- public and private -- within the state," while showcasing Pennsylvania artists, says Judith O'Toole, Westmoreland Museum director/CEO.

The first, "Artists of the Commonwealth: Realism in Pennsylvania Painting 1950-2000," traveled throughout the state in 2001-02. (See previous story: Art Review: Artists from state provide exciting show 05/26/01) The current exhibition built upon concepts explored in that show while examining the previous half-century.

O'Toole selected the artists in collaboration with John Vanco, executive director of the Erie Art Museum, and Michael Tomor, executive director of the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art.

She's particularly pleased that this exhibition balances contributions made by artists who worked in or near both of the state's hubs. "Many times these shows focusing on Pennsylvania are Philadelphia-centric. This one will reveal the wonderful painters on the Western side of the state."

And Western artists do shine.

While Aaron Harry Gorson's impressionistic depictions of mills along the rivers are well known (represented here by the exceptional "Monongahela Steel Mills and Barges"), Johanna K.W. Hailman is less a household name, although she exhibited in the first Carnegie International in 1896 and thereafter, save two, until 1955. Flamboyant brushwork and areas of paint push her surging "Mills, Trains, and Barges" to the realm of abstraction.

	The comfortable pose of the "Girl, Back to Piano," painted in 1932 by John Sloan, reflects the intimate relationship the artist and his student shared. Click photo for larger image.

Also drawing on the steel industry for subject matter but depicting workers' modest homes are Christian Walter, whose "Pittsburgh" was supported by the Works Progress Administration, and Everett Warner, who was a Carnegie Tech faculty member when he painted "As the Sparks Fly Upward."

The juxtaposition of these works invites further cultural observation. The former, inspired by the formidable power of industry, are loaned by the Duquesne Club, while the latter, which address the squalor laborer's families endured, are part of the Steidle Collection of the Earth and Mineral Sciences Museum at Pennsylvania State University. The near pairing of private and public concerns offers opportunity to more fully read the attitudes of a period.

Similarly, portraiture and women's roles are paralleled in three remarkable paintings at the show's entry. The first is an elegant 1918 portrait of "Mrs. Andrew Carnegie," every inch the patrician, by Cecilia Beaux, that was commissioned by the Carnegie Institute. Beaux exhibited in and won awards in the 1896 and 1899 Internationals.

The second is Malcolm Parcell's circa 1928 "Portrait of Helen Gallagher," the pretty sitter's bobbed hair, relaxed posture and knee-revealing black jumper indicative of her participation in the period's new feminism. And, lastly, Franklin Watkin's "Portrait of Jane Drummond (Remember Me)," 1943, shows a wan woman in a flowing white dress holding a nosegay of forget-me-nots.

In the catalog foreword, O'Toole writes that she and her collaborators "predict that all [the exhibited artists'] contributions will grow in stature as American art in general becomes better recognized around the nation and world by private collectors and public museums."

Anyone following auction sales and European response to recent exhibitions of American art will be in agreement with that prediction. That's all the more reason we're fortunate to already have works such as these in public collections or in private hands willing to lend.