Philadelphia Antiques Show 2018

6 “Emily Brown,” Artist Registry, The Drawing Center, updated November 10, 2011, http://www.drawingcenter.org/viewingprogram/portfolio4006.html?pf=3250. 7 “Emily Brown,” Faculty Directory, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, accessed February 15, 2018, https://www.pafa.org/faculty-members/emily-brown. Emily Brown, American, born 1943 Water Surface With Reflections 2015 Ink wash on paper Sheet: 24 × 19 inches (61 × 48.3 cm) Purchased with the Julius Bloch Memorial Fund created by Benjamin D. Bernstein, 2016 2016-37-1 L ike the work of the Peales, Water Surface with Reflections by Emily Brown (born 1943) explores the close connections between artists and nature. The work is an effort by Brown to capture a particular instant in time. Her shift from lighter, looser strokes at the bottom to darker, densely packed marks at the top communicates this ephemeral moment to viewers. Brown harnesses the textural quality of the paper and ink to express her primary interest in painting from nature: creating a “distilled response to experiences outdoors where change is constant, and vulnerable and complex forms abound.” 6 Her work emerges from the Philadelphia realist tradition, a style she developed through immersion in Philadelphia’s artistic heritage as a student at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) and the University of Pennsylvania and as a teacher at PAFA and at the University of the Arts. In the early 2000s, Brown began to make drawings of water surfaces, often using a single color of ink wash. These, and other drawings in her oeuvre that focus on single textures and surfaces found in nature, have become the works for which she is best known. 7 The Museum owns several examples of Brown’s work, including a drawing of trees from her first series made in ink wash. Brown’s legacy, as both a student and teacher in Philadelphia, is an important part of the Museum’s continuing commitment to representing the art of the city. Emily Brown, Water Surface with Reflections W 121 W