Artwork
Berks County Almshouse, 1895
Berks County Almshouse, 1895 is an oil painting by the American Impressionist artist Louis Mader. It dates from 1895 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
- Inscription
- Inscribed:lower right: Louis Mader; lower center: View of the Berks-County-Almshouse, 1895. / DIRECTORS: DR. WM. H. SEITZINGER--JOHN A. HIESTER--JONATHAN W. SCHWARTZ. / STEWARD: JOHN W. GILBERT--UNDER STEWARD: OLIVER C. SITLER. / CLERK: SAMUEL M. DECK.
About this work
Technique & Style
The artwork currently resides in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.
Executed in 1895, this work is an oil painting applied directly onto a metal support. The piece measures 82.9 cm in height and 100.7 cm in width. As a classified painting by Louis Mader, the composition utilizes oil paint as its primary medium, distinguished by the rigid metallic surface rather than traditional canvas or wood paneling. The artwork currently resides in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
History & Provenance
The painting Berks County Almshouse, 1895 by Louis Mader was created in 1895, as indicated by its title and the artist’s documented date of execution.
The work’s early provenance traces to Reading, Pennsylvania, where it remained until at least the mid-20th century. It was purchased in 1947 by collectors Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, who later gifted it to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., in 1953. The painting has been part of the National Gallery of Art’s holdings since that acquisition.
The painting is held by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., where it is recorded with dimensions of 82.9 × 100.7 cm. It entered the Gallery’s collection in 1953 as a gift from Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, who had purchased it in 1947. No exhibition history beyond the Gallery’s accession is documented in the cited sources.
Overview
Louis Mader’s 1895 work titled Berks County Almshouse records a modest institutional building in a rural Pennsylvania setting. Executed in oil on a metal panel, the painting measures the structure’s plain brick façade illuminated by a warm light, with a solitary, leaning tree framing the left side. The composition captures a moment of quiet, everyday architecture rather than grandiose scenery.
Subject & Meaning
The canvas depicts the Berks County almshouse, a utilitarian brick edifice that housed the indigent during the late nineteenth century. By emphasizing the building’s unadorned mass and the solitary tree, Mader underscores the modest, often overlooked aspects of community life, inviting viewers to consider the social function of such institutions within a rural landscape.
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