Artist:
Barclay Rubincam
(American, 1920 - 1978)
Sentry at Birmingham
Medium: Oil on gesso panel
Date: 1959
Dimensions:
38 1/2 × 49 3/4 in. (97.8 × 126.4 cm)
Accession number: 2008.8.5
Label Copy:
Barclay Rubincam was born and raised in Chester County, Pennsylvania, and studied at the Wilmington Academy of Art with Gale Hoskins, Frank Schoonover and N.C. Wyeth. During World War II, Rubincam served with an engineering unit in the South Pacific but was reassigned to produce illustrations, murals and posters for the Army’s Information Education Section. After the war he established a studio in West Chester, Pennsylvania, to paint portraits and murals and to create designs for local businesses and individuals. The beauty and historical character of Chester County, Pennsylvania, held a life-long fascination for Rubincam. In addition to many landscapes, still life, and portrait paintings he produced, he built his reputation in this region for paintings that recreate scenes from the "Battle of Brandywine" in Chadds Ford, and other conflicts in Pennsylvania during the American Revolution. He is also noted for creating images of downtown West Chester as it may have appeared in the 1840s or early 1900.
Barclay Rubincam was born and raised in Chester County, Pennsylvania, and studied at the Wilmington Academy of Art with Gale Hoskins, Frank Schoonover and N.C. Wyeth. During World War II, Rubincam served with an engineering unit in the South Pacific but was reassigned to produce illustrations, murals and posters for the Army’s Information Education Section. After the war he established a studio in West Chester, Pennsylvania, to paint portraits and murals and to create designs for local businesses and individuals. The beauty and historical character of Chester County, Pennsylvania, held a life-long fascination for Rubincam. In addition to many landscapes, still life, and portrait paintings he produced, he built his reputation in this region for paintings that recreate scenes from the "Battle of Brandywine" in Chadds Ford, and other conflicts in Pennsylvania during the American Revolution. He is also noted for creating images of downtown West Chester as it may have appeared in the 1840s or early 1900.
Curatorial RemarksSome of the heaviest fighting of the 1777 Battle of Brandywine took place near Birmingham Meeting house south of West Chester. The Quaker building was used as a hospital for wounded British soldiers, and its graveyard includes remains from both British and Continental armies. Rubincam's composition focuses on the main door and stone walls, some of which were marked by musket fire. According to Caroline Rubincam, the artist's wife, the neighbor who posed for the figure of the shadow of the Continental soldier wore a tricorn hat once owned by a soldier of the Delaware militia and a rifle borrowed from artist Frank Schoonover.