Out & About: Westmoreland Society votes to purchase 1891 ‘Still Life with Apples’

Shirley McMarlin
Monday, Dec. 6, 2021 10:10 a.m. | Monday, Dec. 6, 2021 10:10 a.m.

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Shirley McMarlin | Tribune-Review

From left: Barry and Jo Ellen Numerick with the museum’s Richard M. Scaife director/CEO Anne Kraybill at the Dec. 3 Westmoreland Society dinner at The Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg.

Shirley McMarlin | Tribune-Review

From left: Chief Curator Barbara Jones, Thomas Celli and Westmoreland Society president Karen Douglas at society’s Dec. 3 dinner at The Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg.

Shirley McMarlin | Tribune-Review

Director of collections and exhibition management Doug Evans with Anita Manoli at the Dec. 3 Westmoreland Society dinner at The Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg.

Shirley McMarlin | Tribune-Review

Westmoreland Society members voted to purchase “Still Life With Apples,” an 1891 oil painting by Lilly Martin Spencer, for the collection of The Westmoreland Museum of American Art, at their annual dinner on Dec. 3, 2021, at the Greensburg museum.

Shirley McMarlin | Tribune-Review

Museum board president Helene Conway-Long with her husband, Tom Long, at the Dec. 3 Westmoreland Society dinner at The Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg.

Shirley McMarlin | Tribune-Review

Museum board member Pam Kroh (right) with her husband, Scott, at the Dec. 3 Westmoreland Society dinner at The Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg.

Shirley McMarlin | Tribune-Review

Westmoreland Society secretary/treasurer Sande Hendricks (right) with her husband, Richard, at the society’s Dec. 3 dinner at The Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg.

Shirley McMarlin | Tribune-Review

Patti and Bud Gibbons at the Dec. 3 Westmoreland Society dinner at The Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg.

Shirley McMarlin | Tribune-Review

From left: Joseph Jamison and Susan Ciarimboli with Nancy and Chuck Anderson at the Dec. 3 Westmoreland Society dinner at The Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg.

Shirley McMarlin | Tribune-Review

Phyllis Bertok and Richard Lopretto at the Dec. 3 Westmoreland Society dinner at The Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg.

The permanent collection of The Westmoreland Museum of American Art will be one work richer following the annual dinner meeting of the Westmoreland Society.

The ardent group of supporters met Dec. 3 at the Greensburg museum to break bread and to vote on two oil paintings put forth for members’ consideration.

When the late-evening vote tally was complete, “Still Life With Apples,” an 1891 work by Lilly Martin Spencer, came out on top.

Also under consideration was “Young Man Standing on the Fountain,” a 1988 painting by Honoré Desmond Sharrer.

Anne Kraybill, the museum’s Richard M. Scaife director/CEO, said both works “highlight the significance of women in the history of art.”

Spencer was one of the most popular American female genre painters in the mid-19th century, primarily painting domestic scenes. Sharrer is most noted for her “Tribute to the American Working People,” a five-image polyptych now part of the permanent collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

The evening also raised nearly $12,000 for the conservation of “Death of Elaine,” an 1882 Thomas Hovenden oil painting, and $5,600 for the society’s general art acquisition fund.

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Society President Karen Douglas noted that, since its founding in 1986, the society has purchased more than 40 works for the museum’s permanent collection, totaling more than $1.3 million.

Kimberley Ashley Catering provided dinner choices of seared beef tenderloin, seared Skuna Bay salmon or smoked and roasted eggplant, along with a sweet chocolate mousse ending.

In attendance at the museum: Helene Conway-Long and Tom Long, Sande and Richard Hendricks, Pam and Scott Kroh, Ellen and Russ Swank, Al and Sally Anne Novak, Thomas Celli, Chuck and Nancy Anderson, Susan Ciarimboli and Joseph Jamison, Bud and Patty Gibbons, Barry and Jo Ellen Numerick, Phyllis Bertok and Richard Lopretto, Anita Manoli and Barbara Jones, the museum’s chief curator.