William E. Pedrick (1868-1927) Survey of the Artist
Exhibit on Display
November 27, 2016 – January 15, 2017
Opening Reception: November 27, 2016, 1 – 4 pm
Born in Mount Holly, William Everitte Pedrick’s life was cut tragically short at age 59 when he was killed on his way to work in an automobile accident, leaving behind an enormous portfolio of work that celebrated the personalities and events of the City of Trenton. Well-known throughout Trenton in his day, his paintings hung in the State Capitol, City Hall, the Courthouse, and other public buildings as well as regimental armories, colleges, museums, and courtrooms in other cities.
After studying at the National Academy of Design in New York and attending the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, he came back to New Jersey and set up a studio at the Masonic Temple in Trenton. There he created caricatures of notable local politicians and personalities that graced the pages of the Trenton Sunday Advertiser and his own Acme Magazine. While portrait painting was his favorite branch of art, he was also a well accomplished landscape artist, specializing in scenes depicting the role that Trenton played during the American Revolution. An amateur historian, he thoroughly researched his subjects and never shrunk from pointing out the inaccuracies of famous paintings, most notably Emanuel Leutze’s epic “Washington Crossing the Delaware.”
A founder of the Trenton Arts Society and the Trenton Art Alliance, he strove to make an art museum possible in the City of Trenton. As an organizer of the Trenton Fair Art Club, he helped choose a painting of an outstanding artist each year to be placed in the municipal collection with the goal of making Trenton a place of recognition in the world of art.
The exhibit is being guest-curated by Laura M. Poll, Archivist at the Trentoniana Collection, Trenton Free Public Library. Paintings are being loaned to the exhibit by the Trenton Free Public Library and The Old Barracks Museum, among others. An Opening Reception will take place on Sunday, November 27, from 1 – 4 pm. An introduction to the exhibit will be given by the guest curator at 1:30 pm.
Sunday, January 15, 2017, 2 pm, “An Illustrated Lecture on the Life of William E. Pedrick,” by Meghan Chapuran, a graduate of Seton Hall’s Museum Professions Master’s Program and a former volunteer at the William Trent House.
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