c. 1952

Church Street #2

American, 1896 - 1989

A student and friend of Pennsylvania Impressionist Daniel Garber, Francis Speight is especially known for his landscape paintings of Philadelphia’s Manayunk neighborhood and the industrial areas along the nearby Schuylkill River. Speight saw in this urban environment a fragile balance between man and nature, whose coexistence produced a precarious juxtaposition of homes, steep hills, and jagged rock. Speaking of his Church Street paintings, the artist reflected, “I tried to make that rock sort of leaning out, threatening the houses.”