The love of art began with John J. Lease, Sr. in the 1960's when he started his collection primarily of European Art with works by Louis Aston Knight, Constant Mayer and others. Over the years he added works by local Hudson River artists such as Albert Nemethy, Thomas Benjamin Pope and western scenes by Ralph K. Grummet.
The highlight of his collection came in 1970 when he purchased at auction a six-foot by thirteen-foot rolled up canvass. It was so dark the image was indiscernible, but the size was intriguing. Cleaning the canvass brought beautiful coloring, detail and fine workmanship characteristic of the Renaissance period. The cleaned painting depicted the removal of Christ from the cross. Sigmund Rothchild an art appraiser, thought it to be of the School of Michael Angelo. The painting was donated to the Diocese of Camden, New Jersey who placed the work in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.
Carrying on his father's interest, Richard Lease and his wife Marguerite began a collection of their own. It too was varied with Benjamin Champnay, Clinton Loverage, and S.R. Percy. The main thrust of their collection centered around the work of Thomas Benjamin Pope (1833-1891), a Hudson River School of Landscape Painter, who lived in their home town of Newburgh, New York.
Pope's most active period was in the 1870s. He created numerous landscape paintings which were praised by critics. In January 1874, the son of deceased Hudson River School artist Asher B. Durand, went to see Pope's painting, "Autumn in the Highlands" and commented, "No artist need feel ashamed of it".
An exhibit of some of these Pope paintings which was curated by Chloe DeRocker (SUNY New Paltz '16) was on display from August 2015 through December 2015 at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art in New Paltz. Chloe DeRocker's article of Thomas Benjamin Pope was published in the Autumn 2016 edition of the Hudson River Valley River Valley Review.
We hope that you enjoy the Thomas Benjamin Pope Art Collection and his Hudson River Art as much as our family does! Click on the top of the page to view the Thomas Benjamin Pope Gallery and other paintings in our collection.
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