Treasured Icons

The Michener Museum celebrates the bucolic art of Bucks County Impressionist Roy C. Nuse.

By: Jodi Thompson

The gathering of firewood, doing chores and cavorting among the trees became fodder for the paintings of Roy Nuse. Above, "Age of Speed."

   Bucks County has a long history of celebrating its artists, primarily the Pennsylvania Impressionists who emerged within its picturesque borders. One such Impressionist is late to the party.
   That oversight is being addressed by the James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, Pa. Roy C. Nuse, Figures and Landscapes, is on view through May 12. It is the first solo exhibit of the artist’s work in Bucks County.
   Mr. Nuse’s invitation was indeed sent, and it wasn’t lost in the mail.
   "He hid his invitation under the proverbial bushel," says Erika Jaeger Smith, assistant curator of exhibitions at Michener.
   The talented painter eschewed the social scene at Phillips Mill, long thought to be the vehicle for success by many in the Bucks County School.
   "I think recluse is too strong a word (for Mr. Nuse)," Ms. Smith says. "I think of him as a more private, reticent person in Bucks County.
   "He really hadn’t had an exhibition for years, so that’s why he was such a well-kept secret. He’s considered one of the major Pennsylvania Impressionists, and yet his work has never really been out in the public eye." Mr. Nuse had many exhibitions, particularly through the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, where he was a student and teacher. Yet he stopped showing his work to the public early on in his career.

Above, "Self-Portrait with Pipe."

   "When the Impressionists’ aesthetic started to recede a little bit and the Modernists’ paintings were preferred, it annoyed him," Ms. Smith says. "He decided to stop offering his work for exhibition."
   This affected his large family. He and his wife, Ellen, also an artist, raised their six children on his meager teacher’s salary, supplemented only by portrait commissions. Mr. Nuse provided modestly for his brood during his lifetime. They lived with his extended family in a rural Rushland farmhouse and raised chickens and vegetables for food. The Nuses, originally from Ohio, had no modern conveniences.
   The gathering of firewood, doing chores and cavorting among the trees became fodder for his paintings. Because he no longer offered his work for sale, his family was lucky enough to be left in possession of a great number of Mr. Nuse’s work. Perhaps that could be considered of greater value than growing up with indoor plumbing. He died in 1975, nearly 90 years old.
   His children and grandchildren lovingly preserved his work. Granddaughters Robin Nuse and Ellen Slack inventoried and catalogued the collection "treasured in the homes of his descendants," as Ms. Nuse writes in her introduction.
   The family didn’t want their patriarch to be left in the dust of the fury over Mr. Nuse’s contemporaries. The Michener exhibition is the family’s tribute to him.

Above: top, "Neshaminy Creek by Cox Farm"; middle, "In a Quiet Valley (Mill Creek Bridge)"; bottom, "Dawn River: Point Pleasant, Pennsylvania."

   Chances are, he may not have cooperated when he was still alive. Ms. Smith says Mr. Nuse painted for himself, often using his family and friends for models and nearly always using the landscape around him as his muse. Mr. Nuse would meet private clients on Sundays dressed in a suit and the ever-present necktie. His studio was in a back bedroom of his house, and consequently much of his work was small because of the limits of studio and wallet.
   "He seemed to be sort of conservative and reserved with his family and yet he invited the neighbor’s dog to dinner often," Ms. Smith says. "The dog was allowed to sit in a chair at the table."
   He considered the paintings of his children romping in the glen to be among his most important work. Picturing Mr. Nuse, in his uniform of tie and paint smock, painting naked nymphs frolicking in the water is amusing. Did he stop his work if one got a boo-boo or a tussle broke out? Did he tell them "just a little longer" when they whined for a lunch break? He indeed left his family, and Bucks County, a legacy.
   The catalog explains that Mr. Nuse’s "rendering of flowers and trees was particularly realistic." He "believed that the painter should properly depict what he saw before him, and not place imaginative objects on the canvas." Therefore, Nuse’s work depicts "a botanical course portraying the flora and fauna prevalent in the 20th century in the surroundings of his Bucks County home."
   Pennsylvania Impressionism refers more to the geographic designation than the style of painting. The Bucks County School is extremely diverse, as is Mr. Nuse. He painted his landscapes and figures in soft, pastel shades and a high-key color palette resulting in glowing, ethereal images. He also produced dark, moody portraiture.
   His series of self-portraits over many years sets him apart from his contemporaries, yet links him to masters such as Vincent van Gogh and Rembrandt.
   "There’s not, as yet, another Pennsylvania Impressionist with a series of self portraits over a lifetime. That’s a strong art history tradition," Ms. Smith says.
   Mr. Nuse was not as stodgy as his history or self-portraits make him seem. He was involved in several innovative projects in Philadelphia, such as the partnership between the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and The University of Pennsylvania which, for the first time, allowed art students to earn a degree in either art history or studio art. Before this effort, art-school graduates earned only a certificate.

Above, "Self-Portrait with Brush."

   In 1939 he participated in the first televised art lesson produced by the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. In the transcript of the program, Ms. Smith says the narrator states, "If television catches on in this country, then maybe people in rural communities can take art lessons without traveling to a city."
   Mr. Nuse joined with Jefferson Medical College in 1941 to experiment with art hanging over the beds in the ward. The thought was that looking at great art would speed healing. Mr. Nuse even volunteered his time to teach the patients how to better understand and appreciate the art hanging above them.
   "He was a born teacher," Ms. Smith says. "He couldn’t stop himself."
   Some of his students from his 29 years of teaching at the academy have described Mr. Nuse to Ms. Smith as a passionate and generous teacher. This quirky but conservative man left his family with treasured icons of their early life and Bucks County residents with a valued record of its past.
   "Most of our Impressionists either taught at the Academy, were students at the Academy or both," Ms. Smith says. "The very few who weren’t certainly exhibited there, and he did all of those things."
Figurative and Landscape Paintings of Roy C. Nuse continues at the James A. Michener Art Museum, 138 S.
Pine St., Doylestown, Pa., through May 12. Gallery hours: Tues.-Fri. 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Sat.-Sun. 10 a.m.-5
p.m., Wed. 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Admission costs $6; $5.50 seniors; $2.50 students. For information, call (215) 340-9800.
On the Web: www.michenerartmuseum.org