Glencairn Museum News | Number 6, 2021

View of Tonche (Tonshi) Mountain, painted by American artist John Pike (1911–1979). Oil on board, 1958. Accession Number: 12.OP.458. To view a “zoomable” version of this painting on Google Arts & Culture, click here. — View of Tonche (Tonshi) Mountain, painted by American artist John Pike (1911–1979). Oil on board, 1958. Accession Number: 12.OP.458. To view a “zoomable” version of this painting on Google Arts & Culture, click here.

Visitors to Glencairn’s Upper Hall are often curious about a large-scale (96 x 84 in.) oil painting installed above the fireplace (see lead photo and Figure 1). A tree and mountainous landscape fill most of the picture, but the eye of the viewer is quickly drawn to the bright red coat worn by a woman in the lower right-hand corner. Here a white-haired couple stands side by side on a rock outcropping—seemingly enjoying the spectacular view. The painting was made by the American artist John Pike (1911–1979), and the couple is Raymond and Mildred Pitcairn. They are looking toward their beloved summer vacation property—Glen Tonche—located on Tonche Mountain (also called Tonshi Mountain) in the Catskill Mountains of New York. Since its creation, this painting has enjoyed a prominent place above the fireplace at Glencairn (except during the Christmas season, when a painting of the Adoration of the Shepherds is put in its place). In addition to this painting of the Catskills, commissioned by Raymond in the late 1950s, there are four other works of art by John Pike that were either commissioned by—or given as gifts to—the Pitcairns: a pen and ink drawing of Saint Francis; an oil painting of Bryn Athyn Cathedral; an oil portrait of Abraham Lincoln, and an oil portrait of Raymond Pitcairn.

We don’t know how John Pike and the Pitcairns first met, but Pike maintained a summer studio in Woodstock, New York, near the Pitcairns’ summer home. Built in the late 1920s, Glen Tonche is described by Raymond Pitcairn’s biographer, Jennie Gaskill, as “a rambling clapboard house with windows in some rooms reaching from floor to ceiling, giving spacious views of mountains and lake [the Ashokan dam]” (Jennie May Gaskill, Biography of Raymond Pitcairn, 1973, p. 170). The Pitcairns spent most of every summer there accompanied by relatives, friends, and various members of their household staff. In addition, young men and women associated with the Bryn Athyn Church and the Academy of the New Church schools were hired for light housekeeping duties, as well as ongoing landscaping and building projects. Long summer hikes in the mountains, and trips to the picturesque town of Woodstock, were a welcome change of pace from life in the Philadelphia suburbs.

According to a website about John Pike maintained by his family, he was “. . . a Bostonian by birth and an artist, world traveler, lecturer, teacher, author, musician, and inventor by choice. Having studied under the careful tutelage of two famous artists at the Provincetown artist’s colony, Charles Hawthorne and Richard Miller, John Pike’s illustrious career began at the age of sixteen when he gave his first one-man show. By the time of his death, over sixty one-man shows had been credited to his career.” Pike’s entry on the website of the Smithsonian American Art Museum notes that he “studied at the Cape Cod School of Art [under Hawthorne and Miller] then moved to Jamaica in 1933, where he lived for five years. He worked on many different art projects, including designing theaters and nightclubs, painting murals, and promoting a local rum company. Back in the States, he created illustrations for magazines and advertisements for everything from insurance to oil. In 1945 he traveled to Asia with the military, making sketches of the United States’ occupation of Korea, and also traveled around the world painting pictures for the Air Force Historical Foundation. He established the John Pike Watercolor School in Woodstock, New York, in 1960, and took people on ‘painting holidays’ to Europe and South America.” In 1962 Kerry Pendleton, one of the Pitcairns’ granddaughters, attended one of the sessions given at the John Pike Watercolor School. Partly because of this famous school, which attracted professional artists from around the country, Pike is well remembered by the arts community in Woodstock to this day.

Oil Painting of Tonche Mountain

The oil painting on board of Tonche Mountain was delivered to the Pitcairns in Bryn Athyn in December of 1958, along with a watercolor of the same subject. It is possible that the watercolor had been made as part of a series of studies for the final painting. That September Raymond had written to Pike as follows:

“I look forward with the keenest interest to the water color sketches which you are going to make of Tonche Mountain from the north side. I agree with you entirely that the lighting would be more dramatic in the early morning or toward sunset than it was the morning we drove up to the Boudrau house and up toward Meads. Right after lunch the clouds had become much more beautiful. Maybe the most interesting cloud effect would be a great cumulus thunderhead back of the mountain.” (Raymond Pitcairn. Letter to John Pike. 4 September 1958.)

Figure 2: Felix Sabatino’s pencil sketch for the installation of John Pike’s painting of Tonche (Tonshi) Mountain in Glencairn’s Upper Hall. (See also Figure 1.) Glencairn Museum Archives.

In a letter to Pitcairn sent after mailing the paintings, Pike listed three points about the final painting in oil:

“There are several points I shall like to speak of about the painting.

It is still slightly wet and the surface is very glossy. Shall you like a ‘mat’ finish this can be applied when the painting is completely dry.
The ‘multimedia’ board it is painted on is a fairly new development I have found to be an excellent oil ground.
The thin frame is simply a liner.” (John Pike. Letter to Raymond Pitcairn. 17 December 1958.)

In the summer of 1959, plans were made to create a frame for the painting so that it could be hung above the fireplace in Glencairn’s Upper Hall. The Pitcairns’ oldest son Nathan wrote to Raymond in July; with the letter he included a diagram created by Felix Sabatino (Figure 2), the chief modeler employed at Glencairn. Mildred must have been fond of the painting because she used it for her annual Christmas card in 1968, two years after Raymond had passed away. That year Zellah Pike, the artist’s wife, wrote in their Christmas card to Mildred, “how pleased Johnny was (me too) when he saw your card.” (John and Zellah Pike. 1968 Christmas card to Mildred Pitcairn.)

Pen and Ink Drawing of St. Francis

A pen and ink drawing of St. Francis (Figure 3) was given to Raymond and Mildred by Pike in either late 1959 or early 1960. The date of a thank-you letter (January 6, 1960) suggests that it may have been a Christmas present from the artist:

“My wife and I want to thank you for the beautiful pen and ink head of St. Francis and the birds. It is beautifully done and we are delighted to have it.” (Raymond Pitcairn. Letter to John Pike. 6 January 1960.)

Drawn in black ink with a brown watercolor wash, St. Francis is apparently “preaching to the birds.” Pax et Bonum, which is Latin for “Peace and Goodness [to you],” was a greeting commonly used by the saint.

It is important to note that by 1960 Pitcairn and Pike had already embarked on another project: a painting of Bryn Athyn Cathedral for the dining room at Glen Tonche.

Oil Painting of Bryn Athyn Cathedral

On September 5, 1958, a fire occurred at Glen Tonche. The rebuilding of the dining room provided the opportunity to have Pike paint a large-scale view of Bryn Athyn Cathedral from the perspective of the west side (Figure 4). When he was younger, Pitcairn had spent many years supervising the design and construction of this Swedenborgian Christian house of worship. As with all of the work he commissioned, Pitcairn was heavily involved in Pike’s painting of the Cathedral, providing photographs, advice, and critiques throughout the process. In December of 1959 Pitcairn received a preliminary sketch from Pike, and sent back a letter with his thoughts. He was particularly interested in achieving an accurate portrayal of the strong retaining wall on the west side of the Cathedral, and promised to send photographs of a model that would show the details. Pitcairn also had thoughts about the cloud formations, and he tried to express his concerns to the artist—with an emphasis on religion and symbolism:

Figure 4: Painting of Bryn Athyn Cathedral, painted by American artist John Pike (1911–1979). Oil on canvas, 1961. Accession Number: 06.OP.112. Gift of the family of Raymond and Mildred Glenn Pitcairn. To view a “zoomable” version of this painting on Google Arts & Culture, click here.

“As regards the clouds, it is my hope that you may find a scheme which will appear as right to you which will avoid a strong movement to the right placing a cumulus cloud with a luminous crown in connection with the central tower and to the right of it. Symbolically, from our standpoint our Church, which is called the New Jerusalem, was represented by the city New Jerusalem coming down from the clouds out of heaven. The clouds symbolize the literal sense of the Word of God and the glory in the clouds represents its internal sense. I would, of course, want to be sure that whatever you did with regards to the clouds would be in accord with your artistic sense of fitness for your picture.

I feel that it is desirable not to have as much movement in the clouds as indicated in your preliminary sketch.

The family is all looking forward with the keenest interest to your painting which will play not only a vital part in our Glen Tonche dining room, but in our love of the Church and of our little Cathedral and for all that it stands for.” (Raymond Pitcairn. Letter to John Pike. 7 December 1959.)

In August of 1961 Pike wrote to Pitcairn expressing his hope that he would soon complete the project:

“I think I can have our church mural pretty well textured out in the foreground etc. over the weekend and with a couple of nights of work next week. Perhaps we won’t reach all of your final corrections but it will at last be ‘presentable’ until my return on Nov. 1st. At which time I will, of course, be available for any additional suggestions.” (John Pike. Letter to Raymond Pitcairn. 16 August 1961.)

Pitcairn’s full involvement in every stage of the project is clear from Pike’s use of the terms “corrections” and “presentable.” A photograph exists of the painting after its installation in the new Glen Tonche dining room (Figure 5). It remained there until the 1990s, when Glen Tonche was sold and the painting was gifted to Glencairn Museum by the family of Raymond and Mildred Pitcairn. Today it hangs in the Fine Arts Building on the campus of the Academy of the New Church Secondary Schools in Bryn Athyn.

Figure 5: Photograph of John Pike’s painting of Bryn Athyn Cathedral after its installation in the new Glen Tonche dining room (c. 1976). Glencairn Museum Archives.

Oil Portrait of Abraham Lincoln

Like the drawing of Saint Francis, the oil painting of the head of Abraham Lincoln (Figure 6) was also a gift from John Pike to the Pitcairns. Raymond Pitcairn was a great admirer of Lincoln; he self-published a booklet about the president, and regularly gave talks about him to a variety of groups. One such address took place in February of 1962 in the town of Hurley, less than ten miles from Woodstock. Pike attended the address, and either at that time, or at some point in the weeks leading up to that event, he gave Pitcairn the painting. Pitcairn wrote to thank him shortly afterwards:

“At the close of my Lincoln talk, in stopping to shake hands with you and other guests who grouped around, you disappeared and I missed expressing my deep appreciation and thanks for the head of Lincoln, which you painted for me. On Sunday I called your home at Woodstock, only to find that you had left for New York and would be gone for some days. I shall have the painting framed and it will be a pleasure to use it in connection with Lincoln addresses at home and in other places. I like the head very much and am interested to know the medium which you employed. I have been asked this by one of our Bryn Athyn professors, who is an amateur artist of considerable ability, who has done a lot of painting and expressed a desire to know how the head was painted.” (Raymond Pitcairn. Letter to John Pike. 19 February 1962.)

Portrait of Raymond Pitcairn

John Pike’s portrait of Raymond Pitcairn (Figure 7) currently hangs in Glencairn’s Upper Hall, on the wall above the grand piano. Archival records have not yet been found to indicate an exact date for its creation, and whether or not Pitcairn formally sat for the portrait. It originally hung at Glen Tonche, and was given as a gift to Glencairn Museum in the 1990s by the family of Raymond and Mildred Pitcairn, together with Pike’s painting of Bryn Athyn Cathedral. Pitcairn is shown seated with a violin mounted on the wall behind him. Music was an important part of Pitcairn’s life and he played violin from an early age, as well as supporting young musicians, gifting instruments, sponsoring concerts, making recordings, and teaching music appreciation classes.

(KHG)

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