The permanent collection of The Westmoreland Museum of American Art will be one work richer following the annual dinner meeting of the Westmoreland Society.
The ardent group of supporters met Dec. 3 at the Greensburg museum to break bread and to vote on two oil paintings put forth for members’ consideration.
When the late-evening vote tally was complete, “Still Life With Apples,” an 1891 work by Lilly Martin Spencer, came out on top.
Also under consideration was “Young Man Standing on the Fountain,” a 1988 painting by Honoré Desmond Sharrer.
Anne Kraybill, the museum’s Richard M. Scaife director/CEO, said both works “highlight the significance of women in the history of art.”
Spencer was one of the most popular American female genre painters in the mid-19th century, primarily painting domestic scenes. Sharrer is most noted for her “Tribute to the American Working People,” a five-image polyptych now part of the permanent collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
The evening also raised nearly $12,000 for the conservation of “Death of Elaine,” an 1882 Thomas Hovenden oil painting, and $5,600 for the society’s general art acquisition fund.
Society President Karen Douglas noted that, since its founding in 1986, the society has purchased more than 40 works for the museum’s permanent collection, totaling more than $1.3 million.
Kimberley Ashley Catering provided dinner choices of seared beef tenderloin, seared Skuna Bay salmon or smoked and roasted eggplant, along with a sweet chocolate mousse ending.
In attendance at the museum: Helene Conway-Long and Tom Long, Sande and Richard Hendricks, Pam and Scott Kroh, Ellen and Russ Swank, Al and Sally Anne Novak, Thomas Celli, Chuck and Nancy Anderson, Susan Ciarimboli and Joseph Jamison, Bud and Patty Gibbons, Barry and Jo Ellen Numerick, Phyllis Bertok and Richard Lopretto, Anita Manoli and Barbara Jones, the museum’s chief curator.
