Drawing on the Susquehanna :
Four Centuries of Artistic Inspiration and Commerce
Curated by Rob Evans
Overview: This exhibit, which includes approximately 60 works, examines the influence of the Susquehanna River as an artistic muse and commercial driver for prominent American artists who, over several centuries, explored the river’s shores and utilized its imagery as part of a greater initiative to promote the American landscape. These artists worked in a diverse range of media often experimenting with some of the newest technologies of the day including wood, copper and steel engravings; hand colored lithographs and chromolithographs; etchings; transfer decorated china; and paintings and drawings. Many of the prints, framed individually in the exhibit, were used to illustrate elaborately bound oversized coffee table books and portfolios which marketed the American landscape as a picturesque destination, and are displayed in the exhibit alongside actual copies of the books in which they appeared. In all, the exhibit presents a unique portrait a single subject over four centuries, documenting, through the eyes of artists, the Susquehanna's many moods and manifestations, as well as the progression of human habitation and development along its shores.
Background: For nearly four decades artist and independent curator Rob Evans has lived, raised a family and worked in his studio on a ridge overlooking the Susquehanna River in eastern York County, PA. Evans' ties to the Susquehanna run deep as both his parents were raised along its shores, his mother on adjoining property to his farm, and his father further upriver near Wilkes Barre, PA. Most of Evans' paintings and drawings depict the Susquehanna River Valley landscape and its flora/fauna, whether metaphorically or through direct observation.
In 2005 Evans embarked on a curatorial project to explore his roots as a Susquehanna painter and the resulting traveling exhibit, "Visions of the Susquehanna: 250 Years of Paintings by American Masters," featured works by such renowned American landscape painters as Benjamin West, Joshua Shaw, Thomas Doughty, Sanford Gifford, Thomas Moran, Jasper Cropsey, George Inness, and Charles Demuth among others.
While Visions of the Susquehanna focused primarily on major studio paintings intended for exhibit in expositions and which eventually disappeared into the homes of wealthy private collectors, Drawing on the Susquehanna takes a slightly different angle, exploring the artists direct engagement with their public through the dissemination of their work via commercial partnerships with various industries and businesses, utilizing the most current printing technologies available to them. Through mass publication worldwide in maps, books, portfolios, journals, magazines, newspapers and decorated china they not only self-promoted but helped make the Susquehanna one of the most popular and well known rivers worldwide along with its sister east coast river, the Hudson. Even before the Hudson River School of landscape painting took shape, the Susquehanna played a role in influencing and inspiring some of the first truly American artists, writers and poets. Although no formal "Susquehanna School" of painters has ever been delineated, this exhibit argues that such an influential school has taken shape over the last several centuries and continues to this day.
Exhibition Tour Schedule
November 2, 2019 - February 10, 2020
Historic Hellam Preserve, Hellam, PA
April 18 - May 13, 2020
Lore Degenstein Gallery,
Susquehanna University, Selinsgrove, PA
Fall 2020 (tentative)
Governor’s Residence, Harrisburg, PA
Booking available through 2025
Drawing on the Susquehanna on view at the Historic Hellam Preserve
Exhibition Details and Rental Information
Exhibit rental includes:
In-coming and out-going shipping and
packing/unpacking
Assistance with exhibit design, layout and
installation/take down
Wall labels and signage
Display cases
Curator's gallery talk or lecture
Coordination with educational programs
Assistance with press and publicity
Exhibit loan fee:
Available on request (negotiable - assistance with securing sponsorship available)
Includes full curatorial services (assistance with layout/installation/take down)
as well as unpacking/packing and shipping to and from
Contributions are welcome to support this project and to help underwrite exhibition costs!
Thank you so much for your support!
Display case featuring Bartlett's American Scenery
Selected Works from the Exhibit
For full catalog and essay click here
(pc, laptop and ipad only - not yet compatible with mobile)
Matthaus Merian the Elder (1593 - 1650)
John Smith Map of Virginia
From Theodore De Bry's "Grand Voyages"
copper plate engraving with hand coloring, 1627
Artist unknown
A View on the Juniata River
From August 1788 issue of "Columbian Magazine"
copper plate engraving, 1788
Arnoldus Montanus (1625 - 1683)
Sasquesahanok
From "A New and Unknown World: A Description of America"
copper plate engraving with letterpress, 1673
George Cooke (1781 - 1834)
Wright's Ferry on the Susquehanna, Pennsylvania
engraving with aquatint, 1812
Artist Unknown (illustration in The Port Folio for "The Foresters" poem by Alexander Wilson)
Scene on the Susquehanna
engraving, 1809
Jacques Gérard Milbert (1766 - 1840)
Machine for the Portage on the Susquehanna
From Milbert's "Itinéraire Pittoresque du Fleuve Hudson"
lithograph chine colle, 1828
After John H. B. Latrobe (1803 - 1891)
Sky in Stormy Weather - Falls of the Susquehanna Above Columbia
From Fielding Lucas' "Progressive Drawing Book"
hand colored engraving with aquatint, 1827
After John H. B. Latrobe (1803 - 1891)
Dark Foreground - View on the Susquehanna
From Fielding Lucas' "Progressive Drawing Book"
hand colored engraving with aquatint, 1827
After Abner Reeder (1766 - 1841)
An Attempt to Burn John Harris
lithograph with hand coloring, 1839
After Thomas Doughty (1793 - 1856)
Banks of the Juniata
From "The Token"
engraving, 1830
After Joseph Mallord William Turner (1755 - 1851)
The Waterfall - Gertrude of Wyoming
From "Poetical Works of Thomas Campbell"
engraving, 1837
After Thomas Cole (1801 - 1848)
The Headwaters of the Juniata, Allegheny Mountains, Pennsylvania
From John Howard Hinton's "History and Topography of the United States"
steel plate engraving, 1831
After William H. Bartlett (1809 - 1854)
Columbia Bridge (on the Susquehanna)
blue transferware ceramic pitcher produced by
William Ridgway and Sons, Stffordshire, England, c.1844
After Thomas Cole (1801 - 1848)
The Headwaters of the Juniata
red transferware ceramic soup plate produced by
William Adams and Sons, Staffordshire, England, c.1831 - 61
After William H. Bartlett (1809 - 1854)
Columbia Bridge (on the Susquehanna)
From Bartlett's "American Scenery"
steel plate engraving, 1838
Emma Catherine Embury (1806 - 1863)
Nature's Gems - American Wildflowers in their Native Haunts
First edition, with illustrations by Edwin Whitefield
published by Appleton, NY, 1845
Edwin Whitefield (1816 - 1892)
Study for Title Page of "Nature's Gems"
pencil and watercolor, 1845
After Edwin Whitefield (1816 - 1892)
various plates from "Nature's Gems - American Wildflowers in Their Native Haunts" featuring the Susquehanna River in the background,
all hand colored chromolithographs, 1845
After George Catlin (1796 - 1872)
Water Hunting For Deer, A Night Scene on the River Susquehanna, Pennsylvania
From April 11, 1857 issue of the "Illustrated London News"
wood engraving, 1857
After Thomas Moran (1837 - 1926)
View From the Bluffs at Catawissa
From June, 1862 issue of the "Harpers Monthly Magazine"
wood engraving, 1862
After Albert Berghaus (active 1860 - 1880)
Occupation of Wrightsville, Pa., by Lees Army...
From July 18, 1863 issue of "Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper"
wood engraving, 1863
After Jasper F. Cropsey (1823 - 1900)
American Autumn, Starucca Valley, Erie R. Road
signed by the artist
19 color chromolithograph, c.1867
After Granville Perkins (1830 - 1895)
The Susquehanna (at Hunter's Gap)
From William Cullen Bryant's "Picturesque America"
steel plate engraving, 1873
After George H. Smillie (1840 - 1921)
On the Susquehanna (Near Great Bend, NY)
From "Gallery of Landscape Painters - American Scenery"
steel plate engraving, 1869
Nathaniel Currier (1813 - 1888) and James Ives (1824 - 1895)
The Valley of the Susquehanna
large folio, hand colored lithograph, c.1870s
Julius Augustus Beck (1831 - 1917)
Chickies Rock
watercolor, c.1898
John L. Lehman (1916 - 2012)
Construction of the Route 30 Bridge (on the Susquehanna)
oil on canvas, c.1970
Otto Kuhler (1894 - 1977)
Harnessing the Susquehanna: Safe Harbor Dam
etching, 1930
Rob Evans (b. 1959)
Migration
digital pigment print, 2005