John F. Folinsbee, Daughter Beth, 1931

24" x 20", oil on canvas, signed and dated lower right.

John Fulton Folinsbee (1892-1972) was born in Buffalo, New York, and received his first formal arts instruction from painter Jonas Lie at the age of fifteen. By the age of twenty, he had fully committed himself to painting, marking the start of a career spanning six decades.

He first came to New Hope in 1916 at the suggestion of tonalist painter Birge Harrison. There he joined Edward Redfield, Daniel Garber, Robert Spencer, and William Lathrop-the group of artists now generally known as the New Hope School of landscape painting, or the Pennsylvania Impressionists. He quickly became immersed in the community there, and, in 1929, helped to found the Phillips Mill Community Association with his wife, Ruth.

Although his manner of painting changed as he incorporated more contemporary ideas and techniques, Folinsbee always approached his work with a fearlessness and independence that makes his work challenging to classify. He had little time or need for "isms," and thought of himself merely as a Realist, an artist seeking to reveal the deeper truth of the world around him.

He is best known today for his impressionist scenes of New Hope, Pennsylvania, and Lambertville, New Jersey, particularly the factories, quarries, and canals along the Delaware River, and was also an accomplished portraitist.