Richard Blossom Farley

Murals at Theosophical Society headquarters

Richard Blossom Farley was a Philadelphia painter who created the murals in the lobby of the L. W. Rogers Building, headquarters of the Theosophical Society in America with the sponsorship of Georgine Wetherill Smith.

Early life and education

A student at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts he studied under Chase, and Cecilia Beaux, and in Paris under Whistler..............

Artistic career

According to Georgine Wetherill Smith,

Mr. Farley was born at Poultney, Vermont, October 24, 1875, trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia when Cecelia Beaux and Wm. H. Chase were instructors in portraiture. He then went to Paris and studied under [James McNeill] Whistler in 1898-1899. He won the Fellowship Prize of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1912; the Gold Medal of the Philadelphia Art Club; the W. A. Clark Prize of $5000 from the Corcoran Gallery in 1914, and the Silver Medal at the Panama Pacific Exhibit in San Francisco in 1915. He is represented at the Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia by "Morning Mists"; at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D. C. with "Fog" and "Blue and Gold"; and "The Passing Cloud" at Reading, Pennsylvania, Museum. The decoration at the New Jersey Teachers College, Trenton, New Jersey, showing the Peace Treaty with the Indians in 1758., is also one of his works; and the decoration at the Art Alliance, one of his outstanding murals. He worked at the Academy of Natural Science, studying nature's many patterns and his murals record the results of rich experience.

The artist was featured in these prominent exhibitions:

• 1906 – Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts
• 1912 – Pennsylviania Academy of Fine Arts
• 1913 – Art Club of Philadelphia
• 1916 – Arlington Galleries, New York City

He artist received numerous prizes and awards:

• 1897 – Charles Toppan Prize, as student at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts
• 1898 – European Traveling Scholarship Prize ($800)
• 1910 – Fellowship Prize ($100)
• 1912 – Fellowship, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts ($100)
• 1913 – Gold Medal, Philadelphia Arts Club Exhibition
• 1914 – Fourth Prize ($500) and Honorable Mention, Corcoran Art Gallery, Washington, D.C., in an exhibition of contemporary American oil paintings
• 1915 – Silver Medal Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco

His works are represented in the permanent collections of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the Corcoran Art Gallery, Washington, D. C. A portrait of Christine Wetherill Stevenson can be seen at the Philadelphia Art Alliance. Murals include

• “The Peace Treaty with the Indians” for the New Jersey State Normal School at Trenton.
• Decorations of the dining room and music room at the Arts Alliance Building, 251 S. 18th Street, Philadelphia, which Mrs. Shillard-Smith described as "exquisite" and "notable for their delicacy of color and beauty of workmanship."
• Bird mural in the Rittenhouse Tavern, now known as Le Cheri.

Philadelphia Sketch Club

The Philadelphia Sketch Club remembers him this way:

In our membership files are the decaying sketches of Richard Blossom Farley. His works languish in museums, not being exhibited at the Allentown Art Museum, the State Museum of Pennsylvania, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Reading Museum of Art, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

Beach scene

Born in Poultney, Vermont the 24th October 1875, he joined our fair institution in 1896 and remained a member until his death. Nor was he merely a member in name, but was quite active, being involved in decorating many of the Club's affairs, a frequent exhibitor and indulger and singer in the Club's Epicurean revels, and a member of the Grub Club... In 1914, Blossom gave the after dinner talk at one of the Club's monthly meetings, his subject landscape painting.

Fortunately, we can see his work. His landscapes of the New Jersey shore are, at least for now, to be found at the Schwarz Gallery. His portrait of remarkable Christine Wetherill Stevenson, actress, playwright, and philanthropist, can be seen at the Philadelphia Art Alliance, which she founded.

Blossom was also known for his murals. He did murals for the dining room of what was the new University Club in 1930, for which the architect was Grant Miles Simon, another member of our Club. Another mural was for the New Jersey State Normal School in Trenton, now the University of New Jersey. Blossom fulfilled yet another commission to decorate the four walls of the two-story reception hall of the Rogers Building at the Theosophical Society's Olcott Center in Wheaton, Illinois. But Blossom abandoned pointing murals, complaining that housepainters were making more.

It should be remarked upon that Blossom joined other Club members in helping the military during the Great War. At the request of fellow Club member Brigadier General Charles T. Cresswell, they painted twenty-six "Landscape Targets" (3 1/2 feet by 14 feet each) to be used at Camp Meade. Blossom was also among the Club members who served the Camouflage Section of the U. S. Shipping Board, preparing the designs and superintending the painting of various ships.

Richard Blossom Farley was a slender man with a well-trimmed beard. Dying in 1954, he had lived long enough to be remembered by our William H. Campbell. In a letter that Bill wrote to me about Blossom, "He dressed like a gentleman of the early 1900's with a derby, rolled up umbrella, high top shoes, etc. One day he came to lunch and was delighted to report that he was now the last living student of Whistler, since he had read that the only other living student had just died."

Additional resources

• Peter Hastings Falk, Who Was Who in American Art, Sound View Press, p. 1995.
• Robert Wilson Torchia, New Jersey Remembered, Schwartz Gallery, Philadelphia, pp. 58-59.