The Letter

Here are some facts and figures for Saturday’s opening of AN INTIMATE VIEW: Small Paintings & Drawings by Ben Solowey.

• There are over 70 pieces on the walls. In the Second Studio we have 39 lovely small works from just about every phase of Ben’s career. In the Main Studio, we have put together a stunning collection of oils and works on paper from various periods.

• There are 13 Ben Solowey handcrafted frames. This is the largest concentration of Ben’s frames ever. There are beautifully carved gold leafed frames, and others with punch decorations.

• There are eight portraits of Rae and four self portraits. In one work, Rae can be seen in the first year of their marriage, elegantly dressed in a yellow gown. Two of Ben’s self portraits were the subjects of an earlier entry.

• There are ten Bucks County landscapes including four views of the farmhouse in different seasons and media, and a delightful brush drawing (in a Solowey frame) from Lake Nockamixon.

• There are eights scenes from Ben’s 1924 sojourn in Europe. Six are from Paris, including an intoxicating view of the Jardin de Luxemborg, and two plein air paintings of the mountains of Engelberg, Germany.

• There are seven still lifes with flowers from Ben’s garden, including several of Ben’s favorite flowers, peonies (three different colors are in full bloom here now).

• You will also be able to get an intimate peek into Ben’s Fifth Avenue studio in New York, his Philadelphia studio in 1954, and of course scenes from his Bucks County studio where the works are on view.

Clockwise from top left: Hydrangea & Roses. Pastel on board. 16 x 12 in.; The Sail. Brush drawing on paper, 12 x 20 in.; Rae. Oil on canvas, 1939, 16 x 20 in. ; Morning Mood. Oil on board, c. 1977, 6 1/4 x 9 1/2 in.

“Every picture tells a story,” so the saying goes. This week’s highlight from AN INTIMATE VIEW: Small Paintings & Drawings by Ben Solowey, has a story to tell as to why it has not been on view for 13 years at the Studio.

It is a lovely pastel that dates from the last decade of Ben’s career. The zinnias almost certainly came from Ben’s garden right outside his studio. The green glass is still here and played a role in many still lifes over the years. Despite his advanced age, Ben never stopped experimenting as evidenced by the loose gesture that gives the piece an almost action painting background. Ben handcrafted the frame and used small punch decorations in the corners.

We exhibited the work only once in 1996 as part of a joint show with Ben’s contemporary, William A. Smith, of their works on paper. During the exhibition’s run Kitty Carlisle Hart came to visit. Studio director, David Leopold, was working with the James A. Michener Art Museum on the installation, “Creative Bucks County,” which featured a special section on Kitty’s husband, Moss Hart, and another on the collaboration of Hart and George S. Kaufman.

It was Kitty’s first visit to the Studio and she loved it and the works on the walls. She was particularly enchanted with this work and an oil, “A White Still Life.”

David and Kitty got to know each other better and she insisted that he accompany the fine arts handlers who came to her spacious Manhattan apartment soon thereafter to pick up items she had agreed to lend to the Museum for the first two years of the installation.

As the handlers started to wrap each piece, Kitty began to have second thoughts about lending a small Early American Folk painting that was only remaining part of a collection of such work that hung in the Harts’ Bucks County estate.

First she claimed the work was too valuable to lend, then she said her decor would be missing a beautiful work. Thinking on his feet, David offered a solution: would Kitty be willing to hang a Solowey work in its stead for the duration of the loan?

She agreed, and the following week David brought the two works Kitty liked to her home. She was not able to decide which piece she liked more, so David agreed to lend her both.

Kitty and David remained friendly and he allowed her to hold onto the works long after her items were returned. Kitty passed away in her bed in April 2007 under “A White Still Life” and she kept this pastel near her favorite place in her living room: the piano.

Top: White Zinnias in Green Glass. Pastel on board, n.d. 16 x 12 in.

Ben and Rae Solowey had just finished lunch on May 26, 1978, when the artist told his wife he was going to trim hedges by the stone steps that led to their house. The couple, married just two weeks shy of forty eight years, were expecting guests from England that Memorial Day weekend.

Rae asked how long he might be, and Ben replied twenty minutes. After an hour, Rae went to look for Ben and discovered his lifeless body by the bridge over the creek that runs through the property. It was the end of six decades of award-winning artwork.

Rae would later write to a friend that she “encased herself in steel and went on.” She felt cheated of course, but was at peace on the farm, surrounded by the paintings, drawings, sculpture, and furniture that Ben had made.

Rae maintained his studio, more or less as it was, watering plants and looking through the racks of remaining work. She saw some pieces for the first time. She let the garden, which had supplied virtually all the flowers for Ben’s still lifes, go wild, allowing it to become her “wild French garden.”

As Studio visitors know, Ben is present at every exhibition in oil, watercolor, pastel, charcoal, plaster, bronze, and so many other media. In AN INTIMATE VIEW: Small Paintings & Drawings by Ben Solowey, there are two self portraits that practically bookend Ben’s career.

The oil at left is filled with such vibrant youthful energy that it seems Ben cannot look directly at the viewer. The bold splashes of color, and the loose brushwork reveal almost an impatience to get to the next painting as the works trails off in the lower right with bare white canvas. He assertively signs the work in red.

The drawing at right is much quieter. Its soft muted tones in delicate crayon shows the artist’s direct gaze at the viewer. Unflinching, but somehow not unforgiving, he is literally looking up from the drawing. By its tiny size, one would think this was a study, but the signature — a sure sign of Solowey approval — belies any tossed-off practice. Perhaps he intended the intimacy with the viewer, who has to draw their head in close to examine the work.

It is in many ways what Rae intended when she decided that the Studio should remain open for future generations to enjoy: a close personal experience with art that remains timeless.

Left: Self Portrait. Oil on canvas, 1925. 20 x 16 in.
Right: Self Portrait. Conté crayon on board, c. 1976. 5 1/2 x 4 in.