Portrait study of Charles W. Beck, Jr., president of the Beck Engraving Company [printer of The Holy Experiment: A Message to the World from Pennsylvania]

Object Details

Title:

Date:

Date unknown

Artist:

Medium:

Pastel on paper

Dimensions

19 1/8 x 12 in.

Classification

Drawings-watercolors

Credit Line:

Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, 2015

Description

Inscribed on face: "Design for an American Eagle!," 213 in triangleBeck's company was responsible for the private printing of Oakley's The Holy Experiment: A Message to the World from Pennsylvania (1922). Printed on handmade paper, the book included 22 colored and gilt illuminated plates, with all text in calligraphy. Production costs exceeded original estimates, adding to Oakley's financial struggles. To offset her expenses several years later, Oakley had protracted correspondence with Beck over payment of his portrait.

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The Violet Oakley Experience is funded by a generous grant from the Henry Luce Foundation.
For her expertise and scholarship on The Violet Oakley Experience, Woodmere thanks Patricia Likos Ricci. The foremost authority on Oakley, she is the Director of the Department of Fine Arts, Associate Professor of the History of Art, and a member of the Women and Gender Studies faculty at Elizabethtown College.
Woodmere’s website infrastructure and the digitization of the Museum’s collection are made possible by the generous support of Lisa Kabnick and John McFadden.