Daniel Garber – 2009 Honored Citizen

Daniel Garber was born in 1880 in North Manchester, OH. He studied art at the Art Academy of Cincinnati and at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. He and his wife Mary Franklin, who was also an art student, traveled to Europe to complete his art education. After returning to America in 1907, on the advice of artist William Langson Lathrop, he and his family settled at Cuttalossa Farm south of Lumberville where he lived and worked the rest of his life.

Daniel was an American Impressionist landscape painter and a member of the Pennsylvania Impressionist art colony centered in the area around New Hope. He is best known today for his large scenes of the New Hope area in which he often depicted the Delaware River. In addition to his painting career, Daniel taught art at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts for over forty years. So deep was his love for this area that he once wrote, “To know me now you would have to know the place, everyone knows it’s half me.”

Daniel exhibited his works worldwide and earned numerous awards, including a gold medal at the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition in San Francisco, CA, in 1915. He was elected a member of the National Academy of Design in 1913. His paintings are considered by collectors and art historians to be among the finest works produced from the New Hope art colony. His paintings are owned by major museums including the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC, and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Daniel Garber passed away in 1958.

Click here to listen to an interview with Dana Garber Applestein, a granddaughter of Daniel Garber.