Henry Baker (1900 - 1957) Works
Henry Baker (1900 – 1957)
Henry Baker, an Ivy League graduate from Yale University, was born in Dunkirk, New York, in 1900. Baker was one of New Hope’s most important modernist painters as well as a talented musician residing in the area from 1932-1950.
After graduating from Yale, Baker studied at the Art Students League in New York and upon the suggestion of his close friend, artist Ralston Crawford, he came to Merion, Pennsylvania to study at the Barnes Foundation. While there, Baker befriended Edith Wood, a student from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Miss Wood, familiar with the New Hope art colony and its charming surroundings, thought it might appeal to Baker. It did, and soon after his arrival to New Hope in 1932, Baker purchased and restored a beautiful old colonial home.
Two years prior to Baker’s arrival, a break had occurred between impressionist and modernist painters. His first participation with the New Hope artists was at the Phillips Mill exhibition of 1932. In 1933, a new group was formed called “the New Hope Independents”. Baker became one of the Independents’ founding members. He sympathized with their beliefs that all types of art—traditional, modernist, even children’s art—could effectively be exhibited together in a non-juried, uncritical environment. He exhibited with the Independents frequently from 1933 on. He also participated in a group exhibition at the Mellon Galleries (1933) and the 42nd Annual Exhibition of American Art at the Cincinnati Museum of Art (1935). Baker made several trips out West to California, Arizona, and New Mexico. These visits provided inspiration for many of his canvases, such as “Pueblos”, “A Southwest Mission”, and “California Landscape”.
Source: New Hope for American Art by James Alterman