John Fulton Folinsbee, landscape & marine artist

John Fulton "Jack" Folinsbee

• Jack Folinsbee Wikipedia Page
• John F. Folinsbee Catalogue Raisonné
• Jack Folinsbee Artist Page

Folinsbee was an American landscape, marine and portrait painter, and a member of the art colony at New Hope, Pennsylvania. He is best known today for his impressionist scenes of New Hope and Lambertville, New Jersey, particularly the factories, quarries, and canals along the Delaware River.

He was born in Buffalo, Erie County, New York, the middle son of Harrison and Sarah 'Louise' (Mauger) Folinsbee. Beginning at age nine, he attended children's classes at the Art Students' League of Buffalo, but received his first formal training with the landscape painter Jonas Lie in 1907. Folinsbee contracted polio at age 14, which rendered his legs useless, weakened his right arm, and left him permanently wheelchair-bound. He attended The Gunnery, a boarding school in Washington, Connecticut, from 1907 to 1911, where he studied with Elizabeth Kempton and Herbert Faulkner. He later studied with Birge Harrison and John Carlson at the Woodstock art colony (summers, 1912–1914), and with Frank Vincent DuMond at the Art Students League of New York.

At Woodstock, he met Harry (Tony) Leith-Ross, who became a lifelong friend and later followed him to New Hope. In 1914, Folinsbee married Ruth Baldwin (August 8, 1890 – February 13, 1991) – daughter of William Henry Baldwin, Jr. and Ruth Standish (Bowles) Baldwin – whom he had met in Washington, Connecticut. The couple moved to New Hope in 1916, and had two daughters, Beth and Joan.

Critical Reception and Honors

Folinsbee's work has been described as the "rural counterpart" to the Ashcan School. Critic Robert E. Baum (son of artist Walter Emerson Baum) saw in him "the power, frankness, and story-telling quality of a George Bellows or a Winslow Homer. This man sees the rhythm of beauty coupled with a color harmony in many workaday nooks that may seem ugly to the average passerby." In Modern American Painting (1940), Peyton Boswell, Jr. placed him among the "Lyricists"—"the moody ones, dreamers and mystics," who "work sometimes in pattern, but more often in terms of light, shadow and chiaroscuro. They use color and form for emotional rather than aesthetic reasons."

Folinsbee was elected an associate member of the National Academy of Design in 1919, and a full academician in 1928. He was elected a member of the Salmagundi Club in 1913,  a life member of the National Arts Club in 1922,  and a member of the Century Association in 1937. He was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1953.

Folinsbee was represented by Ferargil Gallery in New York City for most of his career, and his paintings were exhibited across the country and in several international exhibitions. He won nearly every award given by the National Academy of Design, receiving some of them multiple times. He exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts most years from 1915 to 1952, and was awarded the 1931 Jessie Sesnan Medal (for Canal and River). He also won awards from the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts, the Rhode Island School of Design, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Salmagundi Club, and other arts organizations, including a bronze medal at the 1926 Sesquicentennial Exposition in Philadelphia (for Outskirts of Trenton).

Legacy

Folinsbee's work is in the permanent collections of major museums, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the National Gallery of Art, the National Academy of Design, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. A bronze bust of him by his friend Harry Rosin is in the collection of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

Folinsbee's students included artists Peter G. Cook and Evelyn Allen Faherty. Cook became his son-in-law, and wrote a personal memoir, John Folinsbee (1994).

Kirsten M. Jensen, senior curator at the James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, is the author of Folinsbee Considered (2014), a scholarly biography and catalogue raisonné. The Michener Museum maintains an online version of the catalogue raisonné, which is updated as additional Folinsbee works are identified.

Highest Price Paid

Since 1999, the record price paid (at auction) for one of his painting, River at New Hope, was $140,000 USD at Ahlers & Ogletree Auction Gallery (as of March of 2023)

John 'Jack' Fulton Folinsbee Artist Biography

Birth: March 14, 1892 in Buffalo, Erie County, New York
Death: May 10, 1972 in New Hope, Bucks County, Pennsylvania
Sex: Male
Ethnicity: White
Nationality: American
Zodiac: Pisces

Known For: Landscapes, Seascapes, Portraits
Medium: Oil painting in a tonalist/ impressionist style; etching and lithography
Movement: Pennsylvania Impressionism
Subjects: Factories, quarries, canals and landscapes

Areas: New Hope, Pennsylvania; Lambertville, New Jersey and Maine
Region: New England and MidAtlantic, United States
Lived: Buffalo, New York; Washington, Connecticut; Woodstock, New York; New York, New York and New Hope, Pennsylvania.
Father: Harrison Folinsbee
Mother: Louise (Mauger) Folinsbee
Relatives: William Henry Baldwin, Jr. and Ruth Standish Bowles (his in-laws)
Spouse: Ruth Standish Baldwin
Children: Elizabeth Wiggins (Folinsbee) and Joan Cook (Folinsbee)

Training: Art Students League of New York.
Instructors: Birge Harrison & John Carlson, Woodstock Art Colony and Frank Vincent DuMond, Art Students League of New York.
Work: Canal in Winter (1917); By the Upper Lock (1922); Outskirts of Trenton (1924) and Off Seguin (1952)
Students: Peter G. Cook and Evelyn Allen Faherty; Cook became his son-in-law and collaborator, wrote his personal memoir, John Folinsbee (1994)

Member: the National Academy of Design; the Salmagundi Club; the National Arts Club; Bucks County Playhouse and Century Association.
Exhibited with: Ferargil Gallery in New York City, New York
Awards: Hallgarten Prizes

Milestones: Folinsbee's works are in the permanent collections of major museums, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the National Gallery of Art, the National Academy of Design, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

NOTE: This is my first attempt at an Artist Biography, so my apologies in advance. - Aaron

MICHENER RETROSPECTIVE GIVES FOLINSBEE HIS DUE, The Morning Call

Name: John Folinsbee
Respondent: Yes
Age: 48
Estimated Birth Year: 1892
Gender:" Male
Race: White
Birthplace: New York
Marital Status: Married
Relation to Head of House: Head
Home in 1940: New Hope, Bucks, Pennsylvania
Map of Home in 1940: New Hope, Bucks County, Pennsylvania
Street: North Main Street
Farm: No
Inferred Residence in 1935: New Hope, Bucks, Pennsylvania
Residence in 1935: New Hope
Sheet Number: 12B
Number of Household in Order of Visitation: 278
Occupation: Art Teacher
House Owned or Rented: Owned
Value of Home or Monthly Rental if Rented: 15,000
Attended School or College: No
Highest Grade Completed: High School, 4th year
Hours Worked Week Prior to Census: 25
Class of Worker: Working on own account
Weeks Worked in 1939: 52
Income: 0
Income Other Sources: Yes
Neighbors: View others on page
Members in Household
Ruth Baldwin Folinsbee (49 yrs)

Collection 1940 U.S. Federal Population Census

• John's birth, photograph, biographical, and death information are available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Fulton_Folinsbee
• Examples of John's paintings are available at https://duckduckgo.com/?t=h_&q=john+fulton+folinsbee+paintings&iax=...