Rae Sloan Bredin

Known for his refinement and dignity, Rae Sloan Bredin brought these qualities to his work as a portraitist and landscape painter. Unlike other New Hope Impressionists, he incorporated figures into his landscapes. Bredin frequently included women and children arranged in warm, amiable groups and arrayed in delicate colors, set against a serene Delaware River Valley backdrop. Unlike his fellow New Hope Impressionist painters, Bredin's settings for his paintings were often interiors. Bredin was a member of the New Hope Group of Landscape Painters who exhibited together throughout the United States for several years. One of his most ambitious undertakings was a commission for the New Jersey State Museum in 1928 to paint murals of the four seasons and the Delaware Water Gap. These murals are now exhibited in the New Jersey State House Annex.
The exhibition Rae Sloan Bredin: Harmony and Power was held at the James A. Michener Art Museum in 2018. A book, with the same name, accompanied the show.

Education and Training
Pratt Institute, New York, New York, 1898
New York School of Art, New York, New York, 1900-1903
Trained with Thomas Eakins at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Teachers and Influences
Trained with William Merritt Chase, Frank DuMond, James Carroll Beckwith at The New York School of Art
Trained with Thomas Eakins and Robert Henri at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Admired Pierre August Renoir, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cezanne, and Edgar Degas

Colleagues and Affiliations
Bredin was a member of the New Hope Group, which included Daniel Garber, Charles Rosen, Robert Spencer, Morgan Colt, and William Lathrop.

He was a close friend and brother-in-law to Frederic Newlin Price, the owner of the Ferargil Galleries in New York City and sister of painter M. Elizabeth Price. The Price family included painter M. Elizabeth Price, frame maker and art dealer R. Moore Price, married to painter Elizabeth Freedley Price, and Bredin's wife, Alice Price, who was also a painter.

Bredin was friendly with Edward Redfield, John Folinsbee, Inez McCombs, and Ben Badura. Additionally, he was a member of the Phillips' Mill Community Association and exhibited at Phillips' Mill. After his death, a memorial exhibition was held for him at Phillips' Mill.

Major Solo Exhibitions
An Exhibition in Memory of R. Sloan Bredin, Phillips' Mill, New Hope, Pennsylvania, 1933
James A. Michener Art Museum, Rae Sloan Bredin, Harmony and Power, Doylestown, PA, 2018
Major Group Exhibitions
National Academy of Design, New York, New York, 1907-1919, 1921-1933, 1934
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1915-1918, 1921-1933, 1934
Panama-Pacific Exposition, San Francisco, California, 1915
Salmagundi Club, New York, New York, 1921, 1923
Philadelphia Art Club, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1921, 1922
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, 1922
Sesquicentennial Exposition Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1926
National Arts Club, New York, New York, 1928
50th Anniversary Retrospective Art Exhibition, Phillips' Mill, New Hope, Pennsylvania, 1979
The Pennsylvania School of Landscape Painting: An Original American Impressionism, Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, Pennsylvania, 1984
The Pennsylvania Impressionists: Painters of the New Hope School, Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, 1990
Masterworks of American Impressionism, Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, 1994
Objects of Desire: Treasures from Private Collections, Michener Art Museum, New Hope, Pennsylvania, 2005-2006
An Evolving Legacy: Twenty Years of Collecting at the James A. Michener Art Museum, Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, 2009-2010

Major Collections
Mercer Museum of the Bucks County Historical Society, Doylestown, Pennsylvania
Minneapolis Art Society, Minneapolis, Minnesota
New Hope Solebury Bank, New Hope, Pennsylvania
New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, New Jersey
Philadelphia Art Club, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Salmagundi Club, New York, New York
Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, Pennsylvania

Commissions
Bredin was commissioned by the New Jersey State Museum in 1928 to create murals of the four seasons and the Delaware Water Gap. These murals are now exhibited in the New Jersey State House Annex.

Teaching and Professional Appointments
Bredin taught at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia; Trenton Academy, Trenton, New Jersey; and University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia.
Bredin was one of the founders of the Grand Central Galleries in New York, New York.
He taught with Edmund Graecen at William Chase's old studio in New York.
Bredin held a chair at Philadelphia School of Design for Women (now Moore College of Art and Design) and taught at Holmquist School for Girls in New Hope.

Major Awards
2nd Hallgarten Prize, National Academy of Design, New York, 1914
Bronze Medal, Panama-Pacific Exposition, San Francisco, 1915
Maynard Portrait Prize, National Academy of Design, New York, 1921
Prize, Salmagundi Club, New York, 1921
Prize, Philadelphia Art Club, 1921
Prize, Art Institute of Chicago, 1922
Vezin Prize, Salmagundi Club, New York, 1923
Bronze Medal, Sesqui-Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia, 1926
Talcott Prize, National Arts Club, 1928

Selected Affiliations and Memberships
Alliance Art Association
Associate member, National Academy of Design
International Society of Arts and Letters
National Arts Club
National Association of Portrait Painters
Philadelphia Art Club