Fern Isabel Coppedge (American, 1883-1951 - Winter in the Village

Signed ‘FERN I. Coppedge’ bottom right; also pencil signed, titled and located ‘NEW HOPE, PA’ on upper stretcher verso, oil on canvas
24 x 24 in. (61 x 61cm)
Executed circa 1941.

Provenance

The Artist.
(Purportedly) acquired directly from the above.
Private Collection, Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
Pedersen Gallery, Lambertville, New Jersey.
Acquired directly from the above.
Private Collection, New Jersey.

Exhibition

"Fern I. Coppedge: A Forgotten Woman," James A. Michener Arts Center (now Art Museum), Doylestown, Pennsylvania, September 16-November 25, 1990, as Hillside Village.

Literature

Fern I. Coppedge: A Forgotten Woman, James A. Michener Arts Center, Doylestown, 1990, p. 37 (illustrated as Hillside Village.
Les and Sue Fox, Fern Coppedge 1883-1951: One Woman's Struggle for Equality in the Art World, West Highland Publishing, Cincinnati, 2021, p. 182, no. CWF-4 (illustrated as Village Hillside).

Lot Essay

The present work is a quintessential view of Lambertville–an uphill village in New Jersey easily identifiable by the steeple of its First Presbyterian Church, which clearly dominates the scene. Coppedge represented this view several times throughout her career, in many different formats. Its balanced composition, a strict combination of verticals (houses, church) and horizontals (the river), is softened by the curving hills in the background, as well as the wooden fence, which trickles down the winding road in a bold diagonal that introduces a strong dynamic in the picture plane. The intense, solid colors are characteristic of the artist's mature style; they act as visual steps that guide our eye all the way through to the top of the composition, and help enliven the sight of an otherwise dreary, gray winter day.