"The Woods Are Lovely..."

Priscilla Payne Hurd, chair of the Board of Trustees, gave a painting by Walter Elmer Schofield (1867-1944), one of the New Hope circle of painters whose work she collects, to the College. An autumn woodland scene painted in the 1930s and left untitled at his death, it was unveiled October 3 during a faculty get-together at Payne Gallery, whose renovation Mrs. Hurd supported and which is named for her parents.

The gift was intended as a surprise to gallery director Diane Radycki. “That afternoon I went out to lunch with one of my students, while [Art Department administrative assistant] Jan Ciganick went up north to fetch the painting,” Diane said. Then Mike Seidl [executive assistant to President Rokke] took me away from the reception on some pretense or other as the painting was being set up under a black velvet drape in the gallery. When I went in, Mrs. Hurd unveiled it and read a prepared statement about the painting to the assembled faculty.”

Thanks to Mrs. Hurd, the gallery also owns works by Edward Redfield and Daniel Garber, fellow members of the New Hope circle. Several of them traveled this fall as part of an exhibit organized by the Michener Museum in Doylestown.

Priscilla Payne Hurd and Diane Radycki with the Walter Elmer Schofield painting recently donated by Mrs. Hurd to the Payne Gallery.