2483
Powder Mills on the Brandywine
FES Title: A Landscape for
[private collection] – Wil. Del – Greenville. The Brandywine showing Powder Mills
Alternate Titles: An Impression of the Brandywine [1957]; The Birkenhead Mills [1962]; Powder Mills [1978]; An Aspect of the Brandywine
Date: 08/1956
Size: 42″H x 47″W
Medium: oil-on-canvas
Type: subject painting
Published: Schoonover, Cortlandt. Frank Schoonover, Illustrator of the North American Frontier. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 1976: 185.
caption: Du Pont Powder Mills on the Brandywine
Inscription: lr: Frank E. Schoonover / ’58
Annotations: en verso: #2483 An impression of the Brandywine by Frank E. Schoonover 1957
Exhibitions: 1957 WSFA; 1958 Hotel DuPont; 1962 FES; 1978 Hagley
Comments: TP 5/7/04; form 5/7/04; index; edit
Commentary: This landscape shows the Brandywine River as it flows past the early DuPont Powder Works, in Wilmington, Delaware. The buildings on the left are two of the old powder mills and the building in the background on the right is Hagley Museum when it was a cotton mill.
The work was painted on various days during 1956 and again in 1957. In March 1958, it was exhibited in the Green Room of the Hotel duPont in Wilmington, Delaware.
Finally, in April 1958, a special gold frame made by Edward Rutkowski was put on the painting and it was installed in its present location by the artist and Mr. Rutkowski. Commissioned by Mr. and Mrs. Charles Maddock, it was donated by them to the current owner.
In 1973, this image was reproduced en grisaille as “An Aspect of the Brandywine” on a limited edition plate by the Brandywine Valley Association.
See #2453 for another view of the Mills and #2483sa and #2483sb for preliminary sketches.
Provenance: Commissioned for private collection [institution]. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Maddock [1956]