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Life of American artist on display:Milton Bancroft exhibit celebrates IUP site’s 40th anniversary

A serendipitous find at an estate sale in Maryland nearly 40 years ago led to the Indiana University of Pennsylvania museum obtaining a cache of artwork by turn-of-the-20th-century American artist Milton Bancroft.

University Museum ended up with more than 200 pieces in its permanent collection, and 65 of those are on exhibit.

“Gilded Age to Great War: Milton Bancroft and His Art” runs through Oct. 29 and is part of the museum’s 40th anniversary celebration. Hours are 2 to 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, noon to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, and noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday and admission is free.

Oil paintings, drawings, letters and more relate the story of Bancroft’s struggles and successes of a career from the late 19th century through World War I, a time of upheaval for society – particularly the art world – in the U.S. and Europe, said Donna Cashdollar, co-curator. Some of the works were only recently conserved in time for the exhibit, and they are divided among rooms based on periods of Bancroft’s career.

Bancroft (1866-1947) was born near Boston, studied and later taught at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia and spent five years training in Paris, including a time in Giverny, which drew many American Impressionist artists, in part, because of the presence of Claude Monet.

Settling into the New York City art scene, Bancroft became a specialist in oil portraits, but he also worked with watercolors, pen and ink and charcoal. He became known for painting 10 murals for the Panama-Pacific International Expos in San Francisco in 1915.

After that, as the U.S. entry into World War I loomed, Bancroft worked on relief efforts for his friends in Europe, and at home he was commissioned to create patriotic posters. When his son joined the army and was sent to France in 1918, Bancroft – too old to fight or be embedded as an artist – volunteered with the YMCA to work at relief stations in France where he saw the results of the war.

Eventually, because of his artistic abilities, he was enlisted to travel France and draw what he saw.

“It was pretty dreadful,” Cashdollar said. “He did not draw battle scenes, but the troops were still drilling and marching. He recorded life at relief stations and they had taken in refugees. … Civilians were trying to resume daily life (after the Armistice). It’s a pretty moving account of what war does to a country.”

Bancroft brought back about 200 drawings from French war zones, and several will be on display in the IUP exhibition, along with his letters from that period.

“It was exciting to read his letters,” Cashdollar said. “I spent all last summer doing that. This is not just an art exhibit, this is an historical account. He was living through some very interesting times with a lot of cultural and political changes going on. Modernism was taking over from classical academic art.”

Another segment of the exhibition focuses on Bancroft’s success with the California murals. While the museum doesn’t have the murals, it has photos of him working on one of them, along with studies of the project, such as rough sketches and composition notes on this thoughts.

The third deals with his early life and includes some of the commercial art he painted to survive, including portraits, Cashdollar said.

More than just Bancroft’s artwork is on display.

“We have his footlocker and some dried up old paints that were in it,” she said. “Paint kits with stiffened brushes … “

The Bancroft collection is among the museum’s earliest acquisitions and dates to 1978 when an IUP art history professor was in Maryland and saw a notice for an art sale from the estate of Bancroft’s oldest son, John.

“It was kind of serendipitous,” Cashdollar said.

She said the late Barbara Balsiger bought a number of items and donated them to IUP at the time, along with items for her personal collection, which she later donated to the university. Balsiger was instrumental in the founding of University Museum and the university’s art history program. Other items were donated over the years.

Cashdollar said that part of the exhibition is to celebrate the conservation process itself.

“The exhibition started as a project to preserve Milton Bancroft’s art in our collection,” she said.

Museum officials had 11 paintings and nine drawings repaired in the last four years, thanks to grants from the National Endowment of the Arts and other donations, but more work is to be done, according to Cashdollar.

“Our conservation project will be going on for years because of all the drawings. Paper is brittle and there are so many different kinds of paper. Oil on canvas has limited number of ways to repair, so at least you know what you have.”

The two conservators on the project are to discuss conservation methods in separate presentations in the museum. Jamye Jamison from ICA-Art Conservation in Cleveland will speak at 7 p.m. today. Michael Mosorjak from Painting Conservation Laboratory in Johnstown was scheduled to speak on Oct. 20, but that has been placed on hold due to a threatened strike by state university system employees that could begin the day before. Check the museum’s website for more information, but museum operations should not be affected, according to Cashdollar.

Mirror Staff Writer Cherie Hicks is at 949-7030.

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