Edith Fetherston Oeuvre
Title
Edith Fetherston Oeuvre
Description
During her life Edith Fetherston completed over 100 paintings, the majority of which were created in Pittsburgh and New York City in the early 1930s. John, her husband, seems to have suggested that she take up painting after the couple moved from rural Up-State New York to the city where there was no room for the extensive gardens Edith had spent her time cultivating in the country. Edith followed her husband’s advice but her paintings reflect her enduring love of gardens and nature. Her most frequent subjects are flowers, birds, landscapes, her pet rooster, and Teddy, her German shepherd. She also included exotic animals, such as giraffes, and Asian figures in her work. Although somewhat amateurish and naïve in style, there is often an uncanny spirituality about many of Fetherston’s works, especially her paintings of solitary vases of flowers that seem to levitate against their simple backgrounds. Their stillness encourages contemplation and their peculiarity, meditation.
Creator
Edith Fetherston
Source
Packwood House Museum
Contributor
Ariel Senackerib
Rights
Please cite Packwood House Museum, Lewisburg, PA when using items in this collection.
Coverage
1931-1949
Items in the Edith Fetherston Oeuvre Collection
The Bridegroom Cometh
In this playful rooster painting, the lead bird speeds off out of the right side of the picture, while two others flank him. None of the roosters are fully shown, because they are cut off at the edges of the canvas. The background is a blur of brown…
Reparations
Two roosters look down and out to the right at something, which has clearly ruffled the feathers of a third rooster. He bends over agitated, sticking up his back wing with his feathers splayed out. The paint is densely applied to create the white…
Tomato Cocktail
In this painting a group of five white roosters with yellow legs and beaks wander around in a grassy field. The rooster at center bends down to examine a tomato. Three more roosters face the right and one other looks out past the scene. The grass…
Cocktail Party
In this painting five roosters walk towards the left of the painting. One bends down and pecks at a tomato. The tomato is roughly in the center of the animals. The background is an impressionistic rendering of grass, with small repetitive blue…
Dawn in Buffalo Valley
Animals and plants of different scales are scattered throughout this composition making this a collection of images rather than a single coherent scene. Their relative sizes of the plants and animals bear no relation to reality, for example, a blue…
Rosemallows Rising Out of a Gray Blue Swamp
There are four white rosemallows growing on three stems in front of water that is painted with deep blues, greens and occasionally a streak of rust. The sky above is a light blue with shades of white and light tan.
Man vs Dog
The central figure in this work is a soldier with elongated proportions standing in a contrapposto pose. He is dressed in blue and is wearing a metallic breastplate and a blue guard's hat with a maroon plume. he is resting on either side on two…
Dogwood
This composition is a mass of pink flowers with purple centers, with green leaves showing scattered throughout the flowers. The paint is applied thickly.
The Blue Vase
The blue teapot decorated with a red-berried plant holds violets and a large white flower. Flying above it is a black and orange butterfly. Below the teapot on the right is a statue of a hatted female figure in a circular holding what looks like a…
Let's Be Red with Mirth
There are two groupings of white orchids and one grouping of translucent pink orchids with red, yellow, and pink accents. The lower third of the background is painted a chestnut brown while the upper section is colored turquoise with streaks of…
The Yellow Butterfly
The black and red, oval-shaped vase resting on a wide foot holds a plant with four main branches with green leaves and red, blue and yellow buds. On the second highest branch sits a yellow and blue butterfly in profile view. There is a tan painted…
What a Gal!
A heavily outlined brown, green, and yellow wooden bird is at the far left of the canvas. On the right is a geometric figure that resembles a sculpture painted red, green, and brown. The background is dark teal that has been applied so that…
The World of Dreams
The World of Dreams shows a collection of figures in a garden painted in an impressionist style. The flowers are indistinct, mostly shown as spots of color. At the center of the painting is a small group of pink, yellow, and white flowers that are…
Flowers in a Vase
In the center of the canvas is a well-defined large dark gray-brown vase that has a band of ridged molding, and a molded vegetal design on the belly and long neck. The vase holds large pink and yellow roses, a large white flower, red poppies with…
Spring Crocus
In the center along the bottom of the composition is a small group of pink flowers. Around them are purple crocuses that are randomly placed. They are set against a light green, thickly-painted background. The brushstrokes generally start at the…
Speech is Born
According to Edith Fetherston Speech is Born shows, "… the exact moment when mankind was conscious he could transfer thought by speech, and he is jumping up in the air in ecstasy. His lady love is admiring him; the griffin is frightened; the…
Let Brotherly Love Prevail II
The subject of Let Brotherly Love Prevail is a grouping of women, flowers, and birds placed against an abstract background. The background is divided between an orange and blue sky and a darker blue and green ground. In the upper left hand corner…
Fantasy
Fantasy is painted on a tall, narrow canvas. The composition of this work is composed by four different types of orchids, including a light purple and white flower on a thin branch at the bottom. A second orchid with petals that are dark on the…