An Everhart Museum painting is the cover girl for a Philadelphia Museum of Art exhibition. The major museum borrowed the Violet Oakley oil painting “The Weavers of New Hope” and put it on the cover of the catalog for the temporary exhibit “Workshop of the World: Arts and Crafts in Philadelphia.”
Oakley was a central figure of the Arts and Crafts movement in the United States, said Humberto Morales-Cruz, an Andrew W. Mellon postdoctoral fellow for Arts and Crafts who worked on the exhibit. In 1920, Oakley painted another artist, Ethel Ramsey Davenport, with a loom. The combination of artist and subjects makes it a good cover image for the show, he said.
The Everhart organized a bus trip Sunday, July 26, to see the painting among more than 250 relevant artworks, including others by Oakley. The exhibit includes a weaving that appears to match the one in the painting. The trip is sold out, but there is a waiting list. The exhibit opened last week and runs through Oct. 11.
“It’s a very big deal for us, or really, any museum, to have their piece on the front page of their catalog, on the cover,” Everhart curator James Lansing said. The $65 hardcover book is sold by online retailers as well as the museum. The painting is also spotlighted on other marketing materials.
A painting belonging to the Everhart Museum is the cover image for this book about an exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. (COURTESY OF YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS)
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A painting belonging to the Everhart Museum is the cover image for this book about an exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. (COURTESY OF YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS)
Oakley painted well-known murals in the Pennsylvania State Capitol building, which reflect her interest in William Penn’s ideals of peace and equality. She campaigned for nuclear disarmament and was later celebrated as a lesbian pioneer. She spent much of her career in the Philadelphia area and died there in 1961.
The only tie to Scranton is the painting’s provenance. The Scranton office of the Northeastern Bank of Pennsylvania, a predecessor of PNC, extended a long-term loan to the Everhart in 1964. The museum has owned it since 1984.
The Everhart loans items to other institutions from time to time, including sending the Oakley painting to the University of Scranton in 2020.
Being approached by the Philadelphia museum is “next level,” said CEO Tim Holmes.
As is common in the museum world, the loan is free, but the borrower covers all costs involved.
Lansing hopes the Philadelphia museum will return the favor and lend a major work.
The Everhart last displayed “The Weavers of New Hope” a few years ago. It will get special attention on its return. “We’ll build something around saying, you know, that our cover girl is back,” Holmes said.
To join the waiting list for the bus trip, see everhart-museum.org.
For information on the Philadelphia show, see philamuseum.org/exhibitions/workshop-of-the-world.