Skip to main content

Robert Spencer Art

American, 1879-1931
Biography from Anderson Galleries Photo of Robert Spencer Robert Spencer was born in 1879 in Nebraska, the son of a Swedenborgian minister. After studying medicine briefly, he decided to become an artist and moved to New York City, where he enrolled at the National Academy of Design. Later he studied with William Merritt Chase and Robert Henri at the New York School of Art. He moved to New Hope, Bucks County in 1906, and studied privately with the well-known Bucks County painter Daniel Garber. It was at the home of painter William L. Lathrop that Spencer met his future wife, Margaret Fulton, herself an accomplished architect. For the next 25 years Spencer lived and worked in Bucks County, becoming one of the most prominent members of the Pennsylvania Impressionist art colony. He suffered several nervous breakdowns in the 1920s, and in 1931 took his own life. Spencer became one of the most visible artists in the New York art world in the teens. His first success came in 1914, when the Metropolitan Museum of Art purchased one of his major early canvases, "Repairing the Bridge". The celebrated collector Duncan Phillips then took an interest in Spencer's work, eventually purchasing eight of Spencer's canvases, currently housed in the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC. The two men became friends, and Phillips appointed Spencer to the Committee on Scope and Plan of the new gallery then being created by Phillips. After Spencer's death, Phillips praised Spencer as "a rebel always against the standardized and stereotyped in art." Phillips believed that "there [was] no other painter, not John Sloan or Edward Hopper, more pungently American in expression." Spencer also has work in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum, the Carnegie Institute, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and the Detroit Institute of the Arts. In 1915, he won a gold medal at the prestigious Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. Stylistically, Spencer differed radically from most of his Pennsylvania Impressionist colleagues. Probably influenced by Henri and the Ashcan School, Spencer made his reputation with skillful, evocative renderings of the everyday life of his community, often depicting the mills, tenements, and factories of New Hope and surrounding areas. "A landscape without a building or a figure, " he said, " is a very lonely picture to me." Later Spencer painted more fanciful European scenes, many of which he did from his imagination, since he did not actually travel to Europe until 1925. Spencer's painting "Mountebanks and Thieves" won a prize at the 1926 Carnegie International Exhibition in Pittsburgh, and juror Pierre Bonnard said, "Mr. Spencer . . . is in the full vigor of his talent which is great. His art does not resemble European art, a rare fact in America."
to
6
4
2
1
6

Use search to find more

Courtyard at Noon
Courtyard at Noon

Courtyard at Noon

By Robert Spencer

Located in Bryn Mawr, PA

Courtyard at Noon Oil on canvas 20 x 24 inches 50.8 x 61 cm Framed dimensions 31 3/8 x 35 3/8 inches Signed lower right: Robert Spencer Provenance Private collection, Michigan; Free...

Category

Early 20th Century American Impressionist Robert Spencer Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"The Gray House"
"The Gray House"

"The Gray House"

By Robert Spencer

Located in Lambertville, NJ

Jim’s of Lambertville is proud to offer this artwork by: Robert Spencer (1879 - 1931) One of the rarest and most important artists among the New Hope School, Robert Spencer was bo...

Category

1910s American Impressionist Robert Spencer Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Pat's House"

"Pat's House"

By Robert Spencer

Located in Lambertville, NJ

Jim’s of Lambertville is proud to offer this artwork by: Robert Spencer (1879 - 1931) One of the rarest and most important artists among the New Hope School, Robert Spencer was bor...

Category

20th Century Impressionist Robert Spencer Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"The Auction"

"The Auction"

By Robert Spencer

Located in Lambertville, NJ

Jim’s of Lambertville is proud to offer this artwork by: Robert Spencer (1879 - 1931) One of the rarest and most important artists among the New Hope School, Robert Spencer was bor...

Category

1910s American Impressionist Robert Spencer Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Note of the City"
"Note of the City"

"Note of the City"

By Robert Spencer

Located in Lambertville, NJ

Jim’s of Lambertville is proud to offer this artwork. Signed lower right Period frame Robert Spencer (1879 - 1931) One of the rarest and most important artists among the New Hope...

Category

20th Century American Impressionist Robert Spencer Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"The Gray Bridge"

"The Gray Bridge"

By Robert Spencer

Located in Lambertville, NJ

Jim’s of Lambertville is proud to offer this artwork by: Robert Spencer (1879 - 1931) One of the rarest and most important artists among the New Hope School, Robert Spencer was bor...

Category

1920s American Impressionist Robert Spencer Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Related Items
Duomo at Sunset, Impressionism , Landscape, Framed, Plein Aire, Italy, Oil
Duomo at Sunset, Impressionism , Landscape, Framed, Plein Aire, Italy, Oil

Duomo at Sunset, Impressionism , Landscape, Framed, Plein Aire, Italy, Oil

By Virginia Vaughan

Located in Houston, TX

Duomo at Sunset at Piazelle Michelangelo, Florence is part of newly released small works from V....Vaughan's collection of recent travels in Italy and France. V....Vaughan painted each of these on location "en plein air" It has an Impressionistic Style as seen in many of Virginia Vaughan's paintings. The Piazzale Michelangelo...

Category

2010s American Impressionist Robert Spencer Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Figures, Boats, and House - Cape May Point, NJ, Impressionist Beach Scene, 1940s
Figures, Boats, and House - Cape May Point, NJ, Impressionist Beach Scene, 1940s

Figures, Boats, and House - Cape May Point, NJ, Impressionist Beach Scene, 1940s

By Albert Van Nesse Greene

Located in Doylestown, PA

"Figures, Boats, and House - Cape May Point, NJ" is a Pennsylvania Beach Scene by American Impressionist painter Albert Van Nesse Greene. The ...

Category

1940s American Impressionist Robert Spencer Art

Materials

Oil, Canvas

"The Hill Pasture" 1901 by Ida Josephine Burgess, Michigan Hills Impressionist
"The Hill Pasture" 1901 by Ida Josephine Burgess, Michigan Hills Impressionist

"The Hill Pasture" 1901 by Ida Josephine Burgess, Michigan Hills Impressionist

Located in Yardley, PA

A large, sweeping Michigan summer vista by the accomplished American painter, Ida Josephine Burgess (1855-1934). Burgess gives us a high vantage point over a lush hill pasture descen...

Category

Early 1900s American Impressionist Robert Spencer Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Coastal, Seascape, Impressionism Original oil Painting, Ready to Hang
Coastal, Seascape, Impressionism Original oil Painting, Ready to Hang

Coastal, Seascape, Impressionism Original oil Painting, Ready to Hang

By Vahe Yeremyan

Located in Granada Hills, CA

Artist: Vahe Yeremyan Work: Original Oil Painting, Handmade Artwork, One of a Kind Medium: Oil on Canvas Year: 2022, Style: Impressionism, Subject: Coastal, Size: 44" x 56.5" x 1...

Category

2010s Impressionist Robert Spencer Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Esopus River, Phoencia New York
Esopus River, Phoencia New York

Mihal MorozEsopus River, Phoencia New York

$5,500

H 24 in W 30 in D 3 in

Esopus River, Phoencia New York

Located in Saratoga Springs, NY

Mihal (Mychajlo) Moroz (1904–1992) Esopus River, Phoenicia, NY, 1968 Oil on canvas, 24 x 30 inches (30 x 36 inches framed) Signed lower right In Esopus River, Phoenicia, NY (1968)...

Category

1960s American Impressionist Robert Spencer Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Canyon Rock, Landscape, Original oil Painting, Ready to Hang

Canyon Rock, Landscape, Original oil Painting, Ready to Hang

By Vahe Yeremyan

Located in Granada Hills, CA

Artist: Vahe Yeremyan Work: Original Oil Painting, Handmade Artwork, One of a Kind Medium: Oil on Canvas Year: 2022 Style: Impressionism, Subject: Canyon Rock, Size: 14" x 30" x ...

Category

2010s Impressionist Robert Spencer Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

“Palm Trees Along Florida Coast, c. 1940” Jane Peterson Impressionist Palm Beach
“Palm Trees Along Florida Coast, c. 1940” Jane Peterson Impressionist Palm Beach

“Palm Trees Along Florida Coast, c. 1940” Jane Peterson Impressionist Palm Beach

By Jane Peterson

Located in Yardley, PA

A wonderful example of Peterson’s views of the Florida Coast during her winter trips down south. Painted during Peterson’s mature period, this lively work underscores the energy of ...

Category

1940s American Impressionist Robert Spencer Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

New York Harbor
New York Harbor

Guy WigginsNew York Harbor

$85,000

H 23.5 in W 44.5 in D 4 in

New York Harbor

By Guy Wiggins

Located in Saratoga Springs, NY

Signed lower right. Guy Carleton Wiggins adopted the bright palette and lively brushwork of the impressionist movement, and is best known for his New York City snow scenes...

Category

Mid-20th Century American Impressionist Robert Spencer Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Le Jardin de Monet, II" (2023) by Leigh Ann Van Fossan, Oil Painting, Lily Pond
"Le Jardin de Monet, II" (2023) by Leigh Ann Van Fossan, Oil Painting, Lily Pond

"Le Jardin de Monet, II" (2023) by Leigh Ann Van Fossan, Oil Painting, Lily Pond

By Leigh Ann Van Fossan

Located in Denver, CO

Leigh Ann Van Fossan's "Le Jardin de Monet, II" is an original, handmade oil painting that depicts an impression of a lily pond. Van Fossan was born in Vail, Colorado, and began oi...

Category

2010s American Impressionist Robert Spencer Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Macy's In Winter
Macy's In Winter

Macy's In Winter

By Johann Berthelsen, 1883-1972

Located in Greenville, DE

23 1/4" x 27 1/2" in frame. Signed lower right.

Category

Mid-20th Century Impressionist Robert Spencer Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

“Covered Bridge, Kingston, NY, 1927” by Walter Koeniger, Snowy Winter Landscape
“Covered Bridge, Kingston, NY, 1927” by Walter Koeniger, Snowy Winter Landscape

“Covered Bridge, Kingston, NY, 1927” by Walter Koeniger, Snowy Winter Landscape

By Walter Koeniger

Located in Yardley, PA

Known for his evocative, snow-covered landscapes, Koeniger brings this subject to life with his bold, confident brushwork and keen eye for natural light. The composition centers arou...

Category

1920s American Impressionist Robert Spencer Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Landscape Beach Scene, Don Hatfield, Colorful Bright Impressionist Oil Painting
Landscape Beach Scene, Don Hatfield, Colorful Bright Impressionist Oil Painting

Landscape Beach Scene, Don Hatfield, Colorful Bright Impressionist Oil Painting

By Don Hatfield

Located in Carmel, CA

Don Hatfield (American, born 1947) "Mothers and Children on the Beach" Unknown Oil paint, canvas, stretcher bars Signed on the bottom right of the painting. Don Hatfield’s 'Mothers ...

Category

20th Century American Impressionist Robert Spencer Art

Materials

Oil, Stretcher Bars, Canvas

Edward Glafke 'Bird Rock' Pebble Beach Impressionist Seascape Painting
Edward Glafke 'Bird Rock' Pebble Beach Impressionist Seascape Painting

Edward Glafke 'Bird Rock' Pebble Beach Impressionist Seascape Painting

By Edward Glafke

Located in San Rafael, CA

Edward Glafke (American 1925- 1997) Bird Rock, 1990 Oil on canvas Signed lower left 'Ed Glafke' Signed, titled and dated on the verso 15in H x 21in L In a giltwood vintage frame: 17...

Category

1990s American Impressionist Robert Spencer Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Framed Oil Painting by Don Hatfield 20th Century Colorful American Impressionist
Framed Oil Painting by Don Hatfield 20th Century Colorful American Impressionist

Framed Oil Painting by Don Hatfield 20th Century Colorful American Impressionist

By Don Hatfield

Located in Carmel, CA

Don Hatfield (American, born 1947) "Mother and Child on the Beach" Unknown Oil paint, canvas, stretcher bars Signed on the bottom right of the painting. Don Hatfield’s 'Mother and C...

Category

20th Century American Impressionist Robert Spencer Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Stretcher Bars

Previously Available Items
Lime Kilns, Point Pleasant
Lime Kilns, Point Pleasant

Lime Kilns, Point Pleasant

By Robert Spencer

Located in Lambertville, NJ

Oil on canvas Signed lower left

Category

Early 1900s American Impressionist Robert Spencer Art

Materials

Oil

Solebury Summer
Solebury Summer

Solebury Summer

By Robert Spencer

Located in Lambertville, NJ

Signed lower left

Category

20th Century Robert Spencer Art

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Robert Spencer art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Robert Spencer art available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Robert Spencer in canvas, fabric, oil paint and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the Impressionist style. Not every interior allows for large Robert Spencer art, so small editions measuring 24 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Wilson Henry Irvine, Arthur Clifton Goodwin, and Henry Bayley Snell. Robert Spencer art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $12,000 and tops out at $231,250, while the average work can sell for $61,875.

Artists Similar to Robert Spencer