Harpers Ferry Focus of April 20 MSV Lecture

S.U. Art Professor to Discuss Harpers Ferry as a Subject of Landscape Art

Winchester, VA 4/16/08…Shenandoah University Assistant Professor of Art History and Art Geraldine W. Kiefer, Ph.D. will discuss how Harpers Ferry emerged and evolved in American and European landscape art during an illustrated lecture at the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley on Sunday, April 20 at 2 p.m.

An expert in the history of photography, American art, and drawing and painting, Kiefer will discuss Harpers Ferry as a subject of landscape art from 1840 t o 1940. Sunday’s program
—which Professor Kiefer created in collaboration with her Shenandoah University History of Photography students—will include photographic presentations of the Harpers Ferry area and a historical and contextual reading of the Garnet Jex paintings of Harpers Ferry on display in the MSV Changing Exhibition Gallery.

On view at the MSV through May 4, 2008, Garnet Jex: Harpers Ferry Landscapes displays 18 paintings by Washington, DC, artist Garnet Jex (1895-1979). From the 1920s through 1956, Jex and his fellow artists in the Landscape Club of Washington often traveled to Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, to look for inspiration and subject matter. Jex delighted in setting up his easel and painting “beside the rivers and upon the hills” of this Shenandoah Valley town. The vibrant paintings displayed at the Museum depict scenes and structures that still exist in Harpers Ferry today, as well as some that do not. As a result, the exhibition not only presents a pleasing visual display of the town’s landscapes, but also a narrative about their history.

The afternoon lecture is free to MSV Members or $8 for adults and $6 for seniors and students aged 7–18. The fee includes admission to the Museum’s eleven gallery rooms. In addition to the artworks by Jex, the impressive landscape painting Harpers Ferry by Danish-American artist J. Ferdinand Richardt (1819–1895) is on display in the Museum’s Shenandoah Valley Gallery. Painted around 1858 and on loan to the MSV from a private collection, this work features the merging point of the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers at Harpers Ferry.

The Museum of the Shenandoah Valley, which anchors a regional history Museum complex that also includes the Glen Burnie Historic House and six acres of spectacular gardens, is located at 901 Amherst Street in Winchester, Virginia. Additional information is available on the web at www.shenandoahmuseum.org or by calling (540) 662-1473, ext. 235. – END –