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Charles Linford (American 1846 - 1897)

19th Century Fine Art Legacy

Charles Linford, was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania [1]. From his birth in 1846 until 1877, Linford remained in Pittsburgh. A young Linford was one of the “enthusiastic group of young men” that met each day at noon the J. J. Gillespie's art gallery [2]. This was the place, since 1832, for local artists to meet, display and sell their paintings. A budding artist himself, Linford took art study under one of the more senior members of the “Gillespie group” -- George Hetzel. An avid fisherman, Linford, in his early twenties, induced Hetzel to visit the rugged, pristine beauty of the Allegheny Mountains at Scalp Level, Pennsylvania, 80 miles east of Pittsburgh for some mountain trout fishing [1]. Hetzel was so taken with the beauty of its forested, rocky streams at the confluence of Little Paint Creek with Paint Creek that he brought other Pittsburgh artists here every summer for more than twenty years. These artists become known as the Scalp Level School artists and Charles Linford was among them.

Linford was to become almost exclusively a landscape painter with birch trees as a favored element in his compositions. Dr. Paul Chew, formerly of the Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, described Linford’s style as having the loose, quick brushwork and dark palette of the French Barbizon painter Henri Rouseau whose color and treatment he emulated [1]. However, an 1884 article in The Nation described one of Linford’s paintings having the attributes of George Inness [3].

In 1873, Linford along with a several other Pittsburgh artists were called to a meeting by Professor M.M. Johnson of Female College (later Pennsylvania College for Women and presently Chatham College) [1] for the purpose of organizing a group whose objective was “Cultivation and promotion among the members of a better knowledge of painting and pictures; of music, instrumental and vocal; of literature and science, and of whatever contributes to aesthetic culture.” This was to become The Art Society of Pittsburgh [3]. As the nascent art society had no permanent headquarters, Linford offered his studio above the central bank on Fifth Avenue the following year [4].

Seeking a change of scenery and perhaps a different cultural environment, Linford left for Philadelphia in 1877 [1]. There, the artist opened a studio on Chestnut Street where he received visitors to view his paintings every Saturday [6]. Linford, always one to promote the arts, was a founding member of the Philadelphia Society of the Arts in 1877, shortly after his arrival there. In 1881, Linford proposed the organization of traveling art collections that would cycle among New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Chicago and Cleveland; an idea that was highly thought of at the time [6]. He had become a successful artist in Philadelphia and his name was mentioned frequently in the Philadelphia publication The American, described as a “Journal of Literature, Science, The Arts, and Public Affairs” [7]. The journal espoused the same principals as the Art Society of Pittsburgh which Linford had helped launch a few years earlier. Linford was described In the October 17, 1885 issue as “one of the earliest, and has been one of the most ardent admirers of the picturesque in nearby neighborhoods, and has found some of his choicest subjects within walking distance of home [7] -- the area around Germantown and along the Wissahickon [8].

Although landscape painting may have been his first love, Linford apparently had not lost his love of fishing, and he was well known enough that the New York Times felt obliged to mention that in 1895 that “Charles Linford of Philadelphia and W. Snyder of New York, with H. W. Hauser as boatman and guide, went up to Dimmock’s Ferry (Delaware River) and brought back the finest string of bass caught during the season” [9]. It was also in 1895 that his very good Philadelphia friend, artist Thomas Eakins (1844 – 1916), painted Linford’s portrait. It was never fully completed. Eakins portrayed Linford with a keen, nervous face, the sensitive, restless hand” [10] painted in mostly dark tones with light only on his face and hand in which he held a palette [11]. This was Eakins’ homage to his friend, the artist.

Linford exhibited frequently: the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Art annuals (1876-79, 1882-91, 1896-98); National Academy of Design 1878, 1890); Art Institute of Chicago (1888-89, 1891); and the Boston Art Club (1889-90) [12].

Linford had remained in Philadelphia until 1893; and thereafter he divided his time between Pittsburgh, New York, and Plainfield, New Jersey.[1] His choice of Plainfield is interesting. At this time, Plainfield had developed a reputation “as having a climate that was beneficial for respiratory and other ailments. Between the gentle mountain air, the natural springs, and the cool breezes coming in from the Atlantic Ocean, Plainfield became a summertime resort for city dwellers” [13]. It is possible that Linford was ill and as Plainfield was in close proximity to New York City, he visited there for his health.

Linford, the Scalp level artist, died in Plainfield in 1897 at the age of 50. A short life, but one filled with accomplishments and devotion to the promotion of the arts. It could be said that he was as enthusiastic toward this latter goal as he was as a young man enthused with developing camaraderie with his fellow Pittsburgh artists at J. J. Gillespie’s and painting birch trees at Scalp Level.

Written by Joan Hawk, Researcher and Co-Owner Bedford Fine Art Gallery, November 7, 2025.

Use only with the permission of Bedford Fine Art Gallery.

References:

  1. Chew, Paul, A., 1994, Geo. Hetzel and the Scalp Level Tradition: George Hetzel Tradition Retrospective and the Scalp Level Artists Exhibition, 26 March – May 8, Westmoreland Museum of Art, Greensburg, PA.

2 Art and Archaeology, Vol. XIV, No. 5-6, November-December, 1922, pp. 314-15, The Archaeological Society, Washington.

  1. The Nation, Vol. XXXVIII, No. 989, June 12, 1884, p. 508, Nation Company L.P.

  2. Chew, Paul, A., ed., Crum, Robin Eadie, and Sakal, John A., 1989, Southwestern Pennsylvania Painters: Collection of Westmoreland Museum of Art, Westmoreland Museum of Art, Greensburg, Pennsylvania.

  3. The American, Vol. IX, No. 240, p. 363.

  4. American Art Chronicle, May 1, 1881, Vol. II, pg. 42, The American Art Review, publisher.

  5. The American, Vol. X, No. 271, October 17, 1885, Philadelphia, PA.

  6. The American, Vol. XVI., No. 407, May 26, 1888, p. 94, Philadelphia, PA.

  7. The New York Times, Vol. XLV, No. 14,013, July 19, 1896

  8. The Art News, Vol. XXXV, No. 24, March 13, 1937, p. 14.

  9. The Art Digest, Vol. XI, No. 11, March 1, 1937, Eakins, American Realist, Revealed by Portraits of his Friends.

  10. The Plainfield Public Library, Early History of Plainfield.

  11. Falk, Peter, ed., 1999, Who Was Who in American Art, Sound View Press, Madison, CT.

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