Redfield's letters

Magazine Antiques, Feb, 2003 by Alfred Mayor

In 1996 John M. Wilson Fletcher published a book gathering the known facts about the American impressionist painter Edward Willis Redfield (see The Magazine ANTIQUES, vol, 152, no.6 [December 1997], p. 788). Now the same author has issued two volumes of Redfield's correspondence in chronological order. Largely written from Bucks County Pennsylvania, where Redfield spent most of his life, these letters, both from and to Redfield, often deal with the many exhibitions at which he showed his paintings. To profit by the present compendium one must know as much as possible about Redfield's life, for the thread joining the letters must often be supplied by the reader--ideally one who has read Fletcher's earlier book.

Edward Willis Red field: An American Impressionist, 1869-1965: The Redfield Letters, by J. M. W Fletcher (JMWF Publishing, 215-257-2794), 2 vols., $170.00 (hardcovers).