Hobart and William Smith Colleges

18 December 2014 Jewelled Pines Graces Art Collection

Richard Scudamore 55 recently donated another oil canvas to The Collections at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. A generous contributor to HWS, Scudamore last year donated the Grand Manan by Alfred Thompson Bricher (1837-1908). This new painting is titled Jewelled Pines (1929) by Walter Launt Palmer (1854-1932).

Jewelled Pines is a 76 x 63 cm oil on canvas. Walter Launt Palmers snow scenes earned him a reputation as a master of capturing winter on canvas. Influenced primarily by the regionalist principles of the Hudson River School, Palmers travels through the Catskill Mountains, Hudson River Valley, Paris and Venice are reflected in his landscapes, as well as his domestic interiors and portraits.

Kathryn Vaughn, visual arts curator in the Department of Art and Architecture, says, Every year, Richard Scudamore 55 has given the Colleges a very beautiful and important landscape painting. He is single handedly building up our late 19th/early 20th century American painting collection.

Many of the painters winter scenes earned him awards and prizes from various art clubs. Palmer attributed much of his success with winter snow scenes to painters John Ruskin and other Pre-Raphaelites who inspired his experimentation with blue shadows on traditional white snow.

Scudamore earned his B.S. in biology and chemistry from Hobart College. As a student, he was a member of the Board of Control, Canterbury Club, Newman Club and the football and baseball teams.