Hello everyone! This week I will be discussing an artist, whose work I have had the honor of viewing at a local museum. The artist is John Willard Raught, he was an American painter know for his Impressionist landscape works. He was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, which is practically in my back yard. The largest collection of his works reside at the Everhart Museum of Natural History, Science and Art. I had the honor of interning there this past summer, however I had viewed his collection prior to my internship. The large collection of Raught’s work resides in the second floor galleries.

Raught studied at the National Academy of Design in New York City in 1880. After school, Raught moved to Europe to to continue working on his art, where some of his works were featured in the Salon. He was inspired by the Barbizon School. This was a group of artists who were making a movement toward naturalism in art. This group consistited of artists such as Corot, Rousseau and Millet. Eventually, Raught ended up back in North Eastern Pennsylvania where he would create many works.

Many of Raught’s work feature the rivers, farms, and forests of the Scranton area. His work had been put in many exhibitions such as the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, Brooklyn Art Association and the Art Institute of Chicago. Prior to viewing his works, I had not known much at all about this local artist. I appreciate his impressionist style of my local community. His works cast a new light on the beauty that surrounds the Scranton area. Being able to see the city I grew up in, painted in such a way that creates lightness, to a city I always viewed in the dark, is fascinating.