Earl Horter
American, 1881 - 1940
In addition to his activity as an artist and illustrator, Earl Horter was also a discerning collector who amassed a notable collection of modern art.
Having demonstrated an aptitude for draftsmanship at an early age, Horter worked for the Philadelphia-based advertising firm of N. W. Ayer & Sons from 1917 to 1923, during which time he made drawings for such clients as the Ticonderoga Pencil Company. He worked as a freelance illustrator while establishing a career as a professional artist, first as an etcher of urban scenes and during the 192Os and 1930s as a painter in watercolors and oils.
His success in the commercial realm provided him with the financial ability to acquire work by such avant-garde European painters as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, and Marcel Duchamp and by such American Precisionists (and fellow Philadelphians) as Arthur B. Carles and Charles Sheeler. Through this means he acquired a familiarity with modernist aestheticsespecially Cubism that influenced his development and that of many of his Philadelphia cohorts, who found his collection a precious resource.
Horter's paintings include views of rural Pennsylvania, the Cape Ann shore, Massachusetts, New Orleans, and Europe, as well as still lifes. He exhibited in and around Philadelphia, as well as in Chicago and New York. During his later years, he taught at the Graphic Sketch Club and at the Tyler School of Art at Temple University.
Biography courtesy of Roughton Galleries, www.antiquesandfineart.com/roughton
Having demonstrated an aptitude for draftsmanship at an early age, Horter worked for the Philadelphia-based advertising firm of N. W. Ayer & Sons from 1917 to 1923, during which time he made drawings for such clients as the Ticonderoga Pencil Company. He worked as a freelance illustrator while establishing a career as a professional artist, first as an etcher of urban scenes and during the 192Os and 1930s as a painter in watercolors and oils.
His success in the commercial realm provided him with the financial ability to acquire work by such avant-garde European painters as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, and Marcel Duchamp and by such American Precisionists (and fellow Philadelphians) as Arthur B. Carles and Charles Sheeler. Through this means he acquired a familiarity with modernist aestheticsespecially Cubism that influenced his development and that of many of his Philadelphia cohorts, who found his collection a precious resource.
Horter's paintings include views of rural Pennsylvania, the Cape Ann shore, Massachusetts, New Orleans, and Europe, as well as still lifes. He exhibited in and around Philadelphia, as well as in Chicago and New York. During his later years, he taught at the Graphic Sketch Club and at the Tyler School of Art at Temple University.
Biography courtesy of Roughton Galleries, www.antiquesandfineart.com/roughton
