Artist Profile

Frederick William Harer

• Lived:
• 1879-1947
• Worked:
• New Hope, PA
• Style:
• Framemaker, Painter, Sculptor

• A painter, sculptor, etcher, and craftsman, Frederick Harer was best known as a gifted frame maker. He learned to craft wood while working for his father, a successful furniture maker. He crafted various exquisite pieces of furniture, as well as sculptures of wood and stone which reflect a great sensitivity for woodland animal life. Harer's work as a frame maker was influenced by his extensive travels, especially to Spain and the West Indies. Harer used extraordinarily creative techniques and methods to produce his frames. He designed the frame surface by punching patterns onto it with nails, and also by using stencils, incising, and matte. Finally, he gilded and burnished the surfaces. Harer produced frames for many artists of the New Hope School, including Edward Redfield and Daniel Garber. His frames subsequently inspired the work of Ben Badura and Francis Coll.

  Source: Michener Museum