Art on the Move - Baum Print

Walter Emerson Baum

Date of Birth: 12/14/1884
Place of Birth: Sellersville, Pennsylvania
Date of Death: 07/12/56
Place of Death: Sellersville, Pennsylvania

Discipline(s):
Painter, Printmaker, Critic (for the Philadelphia Bulletin)

One of the few Pennsylvania impressionists born in Bucks County, Walter Emerson Baum painted the Pennsylvania landscape in the styles of impressionism and American realism.

Ranstead Street

Vase of Flowers

Having lived his whole life in Sellersville, Baum was described as the man "who discovered the beauty of Main Street." Baum worked en plein air, painting snow scenes outdoors from nature even in the worst winter storms.

He studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts under Daniel Garber, William Trego and Thomas Anshutz, winning the Jennie Sesnan gold medal in 1925.

He founded and directed the Allentown Museum of Art, the Kline-Baum Art School in Allentown, and the Bucks county Traveling Art Gallery.

Baum worked as art editor and critic for the Philadelphia Evening and Sunday Bulletin and wrote a book, Two Hundred Years, about the Pennsylvania Germans.

Allentown Street

IT WAS SAID ...

"My father strapped an easel to his car's fender, a palette to his door and painted away while my mother relaxed in the backseat, reading novels."

Son of Walter E. Baum


	Walter Emerson Baum
	BIOGRAPHY Education and Training Apprentice to painter William T. Trego, 1904-1909 Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1910 Teachers and Influences Studied under William T. Trego, Thomas Anshutz and Daniel Garber. Influenced by Robert Henri and the Ash Can School. He was also influenced by Thomas Eakins, French and American impressionists, and Walter Schofield.			Walter Baum, photograph by Bob Stevens, 1953. Photo courtesy James A. Michener Art Museum library.
	Connection to Bucks County Walter Emerson Baum was one of a few Pennsylvanian impressionists who was born here, living his whole life in Sellersville. He created the Traveling Art Gallery, which was designed to teach students a greater appreciation of Bucks County Artists. Colleagues and Affiliations Baum was a frequent exhibitor at Phillip's Mill, although he did not consider himself part of the New Hope School. Baum founded a Traveling Art Gallery in Bucks County, as he did in Allentown, to expose public school children to the visual arts. He was a member of the Phillip's Mill Community Association, and the New Hope Art Associates.


	Walter Emerson Baum
		Major Solo Exhibitions Walter E. Baum, A.N.A., Exhibition in Retrospect, 1923-1953, Playhouse Galleries, New Hope, Pennsylvania, 1953 Retrospective show, Forrest Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1954 Major Group Exhibitions Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1914-1916,1918-1920, 1922, 1924-1926,1928-1954 Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1916, 1926, 1935, 1937, 1939, 1941, 1943, 1947, 1951 National Academy of Design, New York, New York, 1926, 1928, 1933, 1936, 1938, 1941- 1950 Audubon Artists, New York, New York, 1953 Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit, Michigan Fort Worth Museum of Art, Fort Worth, Texas Phillip's Mill Community Association, New Hope, Pennsylvania, annual art exhibitions Philadelphia Art Club, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania St. Louis Museum, St. Louis, Missisippi The Pennsylvania School of Landscape Painting: An Original American Impressionism, traveling exhibition, Allentown Museum, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Westmoreland County Museum, Brandywine River Museum, 1984-85 Kemerer Museum, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 1984 The Pennsylvania Impressionists: Painters of the New Hope School, James A. Michener Arts Center, 1990 Major Collections Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Toledo Art Museum, Toledo, Ohio National Academy of Design, New York, New York Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania President Franklin D. Roosevelt Other private and public collections Nonfiction Publications Two Hundred Years, Sellersville, Pennsylvania: The Sellersville Herald, 1938. Teaching and Professional Appointments Art Instructor, Allentown, Pennsylvania 1926-1956 Founder and Director, Baum School of Art, formerly Kline-Baum School, Allentown, Pennsylvania, 1928 Associate Academian, the National Academy of Design, 1944 Founder and Director, Allentown Art Museum, founded in 1939 Major Awards Bronze Medal, American Artist's Exhibition, Philadelphia, 1918 Jennie Sesnan Gold Medal, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 1925 Price, Springville, Utah, 1932 Prize, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1939 Prize, American Society of Miniature Painters, New York, New York, 1943 Medal, Philadelphia Watercolor Club, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1944 Prize, American Watercolor Society, 1945 Prize, Buck Hill Art Association, Pennsylvania, 1945 Doctor of Humane Letters (honorary), Lehigh University, 1946 M. Grumbacher Purchase Prize for Casein, Audubon Artists, 1953 Medal of Honor, National Arts Club, 1953 Gold Medal Award, daVinci Alliance, Philadelphia, 1956, posthumously Affiliations and Memberships American Artists Professional League American Watercolor Society Allentown-Bethlehem Art Alliance Buck Hill Arts Association Germantown Art League Lehigh Art Alliance Associate Member, National Academy of Design Fellowship of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1939 Philadelphia Art Alliance Philadelphia Sketch Club Philadelphia Watercolor Club