The Foundation for the Reading Public Museum has announced its most recent acquisition: a colorful impressionist painting by Aldro T. Hibbard (1886 – 1972), Gloucester Harbor, c. 1920s, oil on canvas, 23 x 29 inches.
Museum Members selected the newest work of art to add to The Museum’s ever-growing permanent collection on Thursday, November 17 at the first Purchase Party held following the pandemic.
Aldro Hibbard was an American painter who adopted a “broken brush” technique inspired, in part, by the French Impressionists and Post-Impressionists. He was active in Vermont and Massachusetts, and was instrumental in founding the Rockport Art Colony and the Rockport Art Association.
His work can be found in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC, The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the National Academy of Design in New York. The work, which garnered the most votes, was presented by Collections Committee member Dr. Seth Rosenzweig.
During the lively event, Collections Committee members and curatorial staff presented five selections of oil paintings from art galleries in New York and Pennsylvania.
Afterwards, Museum Members voted for their favorite with Levi Mengel Dollars. The Hibbard, which garnered the most votes, was presented by Collections Committee member Dr. Seth Rosenzweig.
The other works on display were: Spring along the Passaic River by Richard Hayley Lever, presented by Collections Committee Chair Bill Sands; Girl with Chin on Hand by William Glackens presented by Collections Committee member Quality Quinn; The Hammock, Conway by William Glackens presented by curatorial assistant Hannah Wagner; and Weathered Barn by Luigi Lucioni, presented by curator, Scott Schweigert.
Gloucester Harbor is currently on view in the Marcus Gallery of American Art on The Museum’s Second Floor.
