Robert spencer artist biography

Robert Spencer was born in 1879 in Nebraska, the son of a Swedenborgian minister. After studying medicine briefly, he decided to become an artist and moved to New York City, where he enrolled at the National Academy of Design.

Robert spencer artist biography

Later he studied with William Merritt Chase and Robert Henri at the New York School of Art. He moved to New Hope, Bucks County in 1906, and studied privately with the well-known Bucks County painter Daniel Garber. It was at the home of painter William L.

Lathrop that Spencer met his future wife, Margaret Fulton, herself an accomplished architect.

For the next 25 years Spencer lived and worked in Bucks County, becoming one of the most prominent members of the Pennsylvania Impressionist art colony.

He suffered several nervous breakdowns in the 1920s, and in 1931 took his own life.

Spencer became one of the most visible artists in the New York art world in the teens. His first success came in 1914, when the Metropolitan Museum of Art purchased one of his