{{Short description|American painter}}{{Infobox artist | birth_date = {{birth_date|1880|12|08}} | death_date = {{death date and age|1940|03|29|1880|12|08}} | birth_place = Philadelphia | death_place = Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia | style = Cubism, Abstract | image = Earl Horter, artist.jpg | caption = Earl Horter, date unknown }}
'''Earl Horter''' (December 8, 1880 – March 29, 1940) was an American painter, illustrator, printmaker, teacher and art collector. He was instrumental in introducing modern art to Philadelphia as both an artist and collector of Cubist and abstract art. During the 1920s, he had one of the largest collections of modern art in the United States, and he was among the most prominent etchers of his generation.
== Early years and education == Earl Blumner Horter was born on December 8, 1880, to Jacob and Jeanette Horter (Blumner was her maiden name), a working-class family in Philadelphia. A student at the Germantown Boys Combined Grammar School in the 1890s, he began drawing as a young boy. As a youth, he was an apprentice to a commercial engraver and found a job designing bank notes. He was also said to be a draftsman who engraved stock certificates for the John Wanamaker department store. At age 19, he was living with his widowed mother and his occupation was listed as landscape artist on the 1900 U.S. Census. Over the years, he signed his name as “Earl” and “Earle.”<ref name=":13">{{Cite web|title=Earl Horter|url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-XHGQ-51F?i=10&cc=1325221&personaUrl=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AM3W3-WX3|access-date=2022-02-17|website=Family Search}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite web|title=Earl Horter|url=https://woodmereartmuseum.org/explore-online/collection/artist/earl-horter|access-date=2022-02-17|website=Woodmere Art Museum}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Earl Horter|url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-6XG9-SG?cc=1589502|access-date=2022-02-17|website=Family Search}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=1934-04-24|title=130 Ex-pupils Fete Five 'Old' Teachers of 40 years ago|work=Philadelphia Inquirer|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/166625033/|access-date=2022-02-17}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite news|last=Berryman|first=Florence S.|date=1932-11-13|title=Etchings and aquatints by Earl Horter|work=Evening Star|location=Washington, DC|via=newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/619043643/|access-date=2022-02-17}}</ref><ref name=":12">{{Cite web|title=Earl Horter|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/libraries-and-research-centers/leonard-lauder-research-center/research/index-of-cubist-art-collectors/horter|access-date=2022-02-17|website=Metropolitan Museum of Art}}</ref>
== Years as an artist, 1900–1919 == left|thumb|''The Dark Tower'', 1919 Horter was a self-taught artist who never attended art school. He studied etching with George Senseney, the first color etcher in the United States who taught at the Art Students League in New York. Horter was enamored with the old-master drawings he saw in museums and galleries, especially the architectural work of Italian artists Vittore Carpaccio, Giovanni Battista Piranesi and French artist Charles Meryon. He felt that he could render the changes in the architectural landscapes of Philadelphia and New York in the same dramatic way as they had done with Old World structures. He wanted to “depict this tremendous epic of new cities emerging full grown out of the chrysalis of the old.”<ref name=":0" />
He was prolific during the 1920s and 1930s, producing etchings, aquatints, watercolors, oil paintings, lithographs and drawings. He was most noted for his etchings of architectural structures and city-street scenes in Philadelphia, New York and European cities. He exhibited widely in Philadelphia, New York, Chicago and other cities in shows where etchings were predominant. He was often cited in newspaper articles - even today - as one of the most important etchers in American art history. His style was likened to his contemporary Joseph Pennell as well as James Abbott Whistler.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|title=Ear Horter|url=https://www.schwarzgallery.com/artist/earl-horter/|access-date=2022-02-17|website=Schwarz Gallery}}</ref><ref name=":19">{{Cite news|last=Donohoe|first=Victoria|date=1977-06-03|title=Retrospective exhibit here shows Earl Horter's work|work=Philadelphia Inquirer|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/172174587/|access-date=2022-02-17}}</ref><ref name=":8">{{Cite news|last=Sozanski|first=Edward J.|date=1999-03-14|title=A little-known passion for Cubism|work=Philadelphia Inquirer|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/179589030/|access-date=2022-02-17}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=1934-03-27|title=Art Association Sponsor for Two Events in April|work=Chattanooga News (TN)|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/604044414|access-date=2022-02-21}}</ref>
Early on, he worked as a both a paid and freelance commercial artist. In 1903, he married the first of four wives and moved to New York. He was hired by the Calkins and Holden advertising agency based on his drafting skills. Horter worked at several other agencies, including Carlton Illustrators and the Cheltenham Advertising Agency. His first etching dates to 1908.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|title=Earl Horter|url=https://www.annexgalleries.com/artists/biography/1068/Horter/Earl|access-date=2022-02-17|website=Annex Galleries}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=1915-12-15|title=The Cheltenham Advertising Agency (ad)|work=Detroit Free Press|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/118624628/|access-date=2022-02-17}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=Earl Horter|url=https://art.famsf.org/earl-horter|access-date=2022-02-17|website=Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco|date=21 September 2018}}</ref>
In 1911, the New York Edison Company commissioned Horter and two other artists, including Pennell, to produce illustrations for its book “Glimpses of New York: An Illustrated Handbook of the City.”<ref name=":1" /> In 1914, he created an automobile ad for the Packard ’38’ Phaeton car and was included in the “Yearbook of American Etching.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Packard Advertising Art by Earl Horter (1913–1914)|url=https://www.carstyling.ru/en/entry/Packard_Advertising_Art_by_Earl_Horter_1913_1914/|access-date=2022-02-17|website=Car Styling}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=1914-06-14|title=American Etching|work=Boston Evening Transcript|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/735607690/|access-date=2022-02-17}}</ref> As a member of the Association of American Etchers, he was represented in its exhibition in 1914 and the following year.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1915-01-11|title=American Etchers|work=Boston Evening Transcript|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/735660152/|access-date=2022-02-17}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=1914-03-23|title=American Etchers|work=Boston Evening Transcript|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/735653000/|access-date=2022-02-17}}</ref>
In 1911, he was identified in the “Annual of the Society of Illustrators” as one of the new wave of artists. He had become a member of the society the year before. He exhibited in a society show in 1913 with an etching of Pittsburgh smelters. Also that year, the Brown Robertson Company, which published prints and art reproductions, included him in a show of etchings of New York streets.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1912-10-26|title=The Society of Illustrators|work=The New York Times|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/20327629/|access-date=2022-02-17}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Mechlin|first=Leila|date=1932-10-30|title=Notes of Art and Artists|work=New York Times|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/619038582/|access-date=2022-02-17}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=1913-10-19|title=Art at home and abroad: Prints by American etchers|work=New York Times|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/20327231/|access-date=2022-02-17}}</ref>
He was one of the 25 organizers of the New York Society of Illustrators in 1913 and was chosen as its secretary. He participated in its 1914 exhibition.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1913-03-02|title=News and notes of the art world|work=New York Times|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/20421865/|access-date=2022-02-17}}</ref><ref name=":1" /> In 1917, he helped form the Painter-Gravers of America, which promised to show nothing that had been shown before. Other members were Childe Hassam, George Bellows and John Sloan.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1917-03-18|title=A new group of etchers, engravers and lithographers|work=New York Tribune|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/152238671/|access-date=2022-02-17}}</ref>
Horter won a silver award in etchings and engravings at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco in 1915.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite news|date=1915-08-01|title=Awards at the Panama-Pacific Exposition|work=New York Times|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/20299862/|access-date=2022-02-17}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=1915-07-25|title=Panama Pacific Jury Awards|work=The Gazette Times|location=Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/85379319/|access-date=2022-02-17}}</ref>
He exhibited in 1915 at Keppel Galleries as part of a group exhibit.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1915-01-15|title=Pen and pencil work of fifty artists shown|work=Evening World|location=New York|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/85282265/|access-date=2022-02-17}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=1915-01-23|title=The world of art|work=Brooklyn Daily Eagle|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/54335882/|access-date=2022-02-17}}</ref> He had the first one-man show of his drawings and etchings in 1916 at Keppel.<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite book|date=1916|title=Catalogue of an exhibition of etchings and drawings by Earl Horter, Sept. 26th to Oct. 14th, 1916|oclc=814976309}}</ref> A writer for the New York Times extolled his watercolors but found his etchings uneven.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1916-09-24|title=Drawings and etchings by Earl Horter on view|work=New York Times|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/20594551/|access-date=2022-02-17}}</ref> Another writer hailed his works with a “Bravo."<ref>{{Cite news|date=1916-11-12|title=Art (column)|work=Hartford Courant|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/369160167|access-date=2022-02-17}}</ref>
Horter participated for the first time in the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts annual show in 1915 with the etching “Madison Square.”<ref name=":3" /><ref>{{Cite web|title=Exhibition catalogue for the 13th Annual Philadelphia Water Color Exhibition and the 14th Annual Exhibition of Miniatures sponsored by the Philadelphia Water Color Club and the Pennsylvania Society of Miniature Painters, November 7, 1915 to December 12, 1915.|url=https://pafaarchives.org/item/38099|access-date=2022-02-17|website=Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts}}</ref> In 1916, he participated in the first exhibit by the newly formed Brooklyn Society of Etchers and the New York Society of Etchers.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1916-11-25|title=Inaugural exhibit Brooklyn Society of Etchers|work=Brooklyn Life|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/83199954/}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=1916-10-29|title=Exhibition of New York Society of Etchers|work=New York Times|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/20315730/|access-date=2022-02-17}}</ref> In 1919, the New York Tribune reproduced his etchings that had run in Century magazine of buildings in Old Philadelphia.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1919-06-22|title=Looking back into old Philadelphia|work=New York Tribune|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/79055669/|access-date=2022-02-17}}</ref> Etchings by Horter and Pennell were used as illustrations in the 1915 book “Romantic America” by Robert Haven Shauffler.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1915-02-21|title=Books of the day: American for the Americans|work=The Observer (London)|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/258891797/|access-date=2022-02-17}}</ref>
Around 1917, Horter returned to Philadelphia and began working for N.W. Ayer and Son, one of the largest advertising agencies in Philadelphia and the country. He rose to become its art director.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":1" />
== Years as an artist, 1920–1929 == Horter was making a good income from his commercial artwork, and he was very active as an artist and exhibitor. In separation proceedings in 1915, his second wife Elin noted that his annual income was $7,000 to $10,000. In the 1930 Census, he noted that his home in Philadelphia was worth $25,000.<ref name=":16">{{Cite news|date=1915-04-06|title=Artist lavishes cash on another|work=Morning Post|location=Camden, NJ|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/445955132/|access-date=2022-02-17}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Earl Horter|url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GRZ5-FS7?i=16&cc=1810731&personaUrl=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AXHZR-JVV|access-date=2022-02-17|website=Family Search}}</ref><ref name=":1" />
In 1923, the Joseph Dixon Crucible Company of New Jersey commissioned him to travel to Europe to sketch and draw whatever pleased him. The only requirement was that he use its Eldorado pencil. Horter booked a ship to Europe, bound for France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Greece and Portugal. He returned to the United States the next year. Horter created 55 drawings for Dixon ads over several years.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" /><ref name=":6">{{Cite web|title=Five advertising flyers displaying copies of original art work by Earl Horter|url=https://hdl.huntington.org/digital/collection/p9539coll1/id/5869|access-date=2022-02-17|website=Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Garden}}</ref><ref name=":5">{{Cite news|date=1938-10-13|title=Give histories of old homes|work=The Record, Hackensack, NJ|agency=via www.newspapers.|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/488751040/|access-date=2022-02-17}}</ref>
His painting “Toledo” came out of that trip, and demonstrated his leanings toward Cubism. He produced several paintings of the Spanish city in oils and watercolors. “Toledo” was shown in the annual exhibit of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1925.<ref name=":5" /><ref>{{Cite web|title=Toledo, Earl Horter|url=https://www.pafa.org/museum/collection/item/toledo-0|access-date=2022-02-17|website=Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts|date=21 May 2015}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=1925-03-01|title=The Pennsylvania Academy as exemplifying orthodox art|work=Brooklyn Daily Eagle|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/59882698/|access-date=2022-02-17}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Earl Horter|url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QV5Y-6H5J?from=lynx1UIV8&treeref=9Z92-2BN|access-date=2022-02-17|website=Family Search}}</ref>
His advertising work for Ayer was included in an exhibit by the company in 1923. The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, CA, has copies of five flyers from his original pencil drawings for Crucible. They include scenes from Philadelphia, Italy and France.<ref name=":6" />
Horter left Ayer around 1923, and became a freelance commercial artist while he continued his etching, painting and exhibiting.
He was represented often in the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts annual shows as an exhibitor and judge. In 1921, he was a judge for the watercolor competition and showed 10 pieces, including six nudes and another titled “Negro Head.” The academy bought his work “The Thames Bridge II” at the 1924 annual competition. Horter won the Philadelphia Water Color Club Prize in the 1936 annual. The academy bought his painting “Autumn in Rockport” that year.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Exhibition catalogue for the 19th Annual Philadelphia Water Color Exhibition and the 20th Annual Exhibition of Miniatures sponsored by the Philadelphia Water Color Club, the Pennsylvania Society of Miniature Painters, and the Royal Society of Miniature Painters, November 6, 1921 to December 11, 1921.|url=https://pafaarchives.org/item/38105|access-date=2022-02-17|website=Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=129th Annual Report for the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts|url=https://pafaarchives.org/item/86462|access-date=2022-01-17|website=Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=119th Annual Report for the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts|url=https://pafaarchives.org/item/86442|access-date=2022-02-17|website=Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts}}</ref> He exhibited with the Print Club of Philadelphia in 1922 and in 1928, took part in an exhibit of illustrations in Washington, DC, sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1922-11-05|title=Print Club week rich in interest|work=Philadelphia Inquirer|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/171042428/|access-date=2022-02-17}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Mechlin|first=Leila|date=1928-11-04|title=Notes of art and artists|work=Evening Star|location=Washington, DC|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/618610951/|access-date=2022-02-17}}</ref>
Horter was a member of “The Thirty-One,” a group of Philadelphia artists who organized a non-juried show of paintings from the “modern school” in 1923. The group wanted to show paintings that were original, progressive and beautiful. Among the members was his good friend Arthur B. Carles. Horter was also represented with paintings in "Thirty" showings in 1929 and 1932. Artist Franklin Watkins described The Thirty One endeavors as the first awakening to modernism and rejection of the traditionalism of the Pennsylvania academy.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1923-04-02|title=Phila. artist group will open exhibit|work=Philadelphia Inquirer|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/170744244/|access-date=2022-02-17}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=1932-11-06|title=In gallery and studio|work=Philadelphia Inquirer|agency=via newspapers.com/.|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/173317199/|access-date=2022-02-17}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Bonte|first=C.H.|date=1929-02-24|title=In gallery and studio|work=Philadelphia Inquirer|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/172847307/|access-date=2022-02-17}}</ref><ref name=":7">{{Cite news|last=Benson|first=Gertrude|date=1952-07-15|title=Soul-searching symbols illumine Watkins works|work=Philadelphia Tribune|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/172711487/|access-date=2022-02-17}}</ref>
Horter's foray into modernism was influenced by that group, his trips to Europe and the encouragement of Carl Zigrosser, curator at the Museum of Modern Art. He began painting in the modern style and collecting its major European artists. Other influencers were Carles and Henry McCarter, also a member of The Thirty-One, and collector Albert C. Barnes.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":1" />
In 1929, he won first place in an advertising art show at the Philadelphia Sketch Club in the “illustration for full color reproduction” category.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Bonte|first=C.H.|date=1929-04-07|title=In gallery and studio|work=Philadelphia Inquirer|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/172869031|access-date=2022-02-18}}</ref>
== Years as an artist, 1930–1939 == thumb|''Gloucester, Massachusetts'' by Earl Horter, 1932, pastel on vellum Like the 1920s, this was a busy decade for Horter, who was “here, there and everywhere these days, lecturing or exhibiting or winning prizes,” one newspaper writer noted.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1934-04-22|title=Grim and gay mingle in contemporary drawings|work=Philadelphia Inquirer|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/166620456|access-date=2022-02-18}}</ref> It was also a difficult time for him personally. The Depression had taken hold of the country, and his commercial work dried up, alimony payments became due and his expensive living strained his finances.<ref name=":1" />
By the early 1930s, he was painting in aquatint with its soft tones evoking moods. In 1930, he wrote a book titled “Picasso, Matisse, Derain, Modigliani” that was part of a Museum of Modern Art exhibit a year later.<ref name=":9">{{Cite web|title=Henri-Matisse retrospective exhibition : November 3-December 6, 1931|url=https://www.moma.org/documents/moma_catalogue_1903_300086892.pdf|access-date=2021-02-18|website=Museum of Modern Art}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title="Picasso, Matisse, Derain, Modigliani" by Earl Horter|oclc=7911758}}</ref>
Some of his gallery and museum exhibits were:
* C. Philip Boyer gallery (Philadelphia), 1930<ref>{{Cite news|date=1930-03-09|title=Earl Horter etchings|work=Philadelphia Inquirer|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/172985865/|access-date=2022-02-18}}</ref> * Memorial Art Gallery (Rochester (NY), 1932<ref>{{Cite news|date=1932-10-23|title=Rare prints at Memorial Art Gallery|work=Democrat and Chronicle|location=Rochester, NY|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/135957173/|access-date=2022-02-18}}</ref> * Whitney Museum of American Art, 1932<ref name=":18">{{Cite news|last=Mechlin|first=Leila|date=1932-11-27|title=Notes of art and artists|work=Evening Star|location=Washington, DC|agency=via newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/619048599/|access-date=2022-02-18}}</ref> * Little Gallery of Contemporary Art (Philadelphia), 1932<ref>{{Cite news|date=1932-05-08|title=No depression among artists in Philadelphia|work=Sunday News|location=Lancaster, PA|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/559878987/|access-date=2022-02-18}}</ref> * Brooklyn Museum, 1933<ref>{{Cite news|date=1933-02-12|title=Openings at the Brooklyn Museum|work=Brooklyn Daily Eagle|agency=via www.newspapers.com.|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/59985140/|access-date=2022-02-18}}</ref> * Smithsonian Institution, 1932<ref>{{Cite news|last=Mechlin|first=Leila|date=1932-11-20|title=Notes of art and artists|work=Evening Star|location=Washington, DC|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/619029749/|access-date=2022-02-18}}</ref> * Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, 1933<ref>{{Cite news|date=1933-01-29|title=In gallery and studio|work=Philadelphia Inquirer|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/173867891/|access-date=2022-02-18}}</ref> * School Art League Alumni Association (Philadelphia), 1932<ref>{{Cite news|date=1932-04-10|title=A Horter show|work=Philadelphia Inquirer|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/173972633|access-date=2022-02-18}}</ref> * Wilmington Society of Fine Arts (Delaware), 1935<ref>{{Cite news|date=1935-02-04|title=Print show to open in library gallery tonight|work=News-Journal|location=Wilmington, DE|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/154287201/|access-date=2022-02-18}}</ref> * Philadelphia Art Alliance, 1937, 1939<ref>{{Cite news|last=Lewis|first=R. Edward|date=1937-10-03|title=3 art shows open season|work=Philadelphia Inquirer|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/171114769/|access-date=2022-02-18}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=1939-03-12|title=Art Alliance's new exhibit|work=Philadelphia Inquirer|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/171400242/|access-date=2022-02-18}}</ref> * Philadelphia Water Color Club, 1939<ref>{{Cite news|last=Bonte|first=C.H.|date=1939-10-22|title=Water Color Club's annual exhibition|work=Philadelphia Inquirer|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/168198195/|access-date=2022-02-18}}</ref> * Delaware Water Color Show (also a judge), 1939<ref>{{Cite news|date=1939-04-03|title=Watercolor exhibition to open tonight|work=Morning News|location=Wilmington, DE|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/160621080/|access-date=2022-02-18}}</ref>
In 1932, he participated in the Art Institute of Chicago's international watercolor show in June; his work was said to have a strong French point of view. In the first National Exhibition of Etching and Engraving at the Art Institute in April, his aquatint “Junk Shop” won third place. It also took home the Print Club of Philadelphia's Charles M. Lea Prize for best print in May, only the second time in its history that the prize was awarded to a Philadelphian.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1932-05-09|title=Prize for etching|work=Philadelphia Inquirer|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/173298706/|access-date=2022-02-18}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Jewett|first=Eleanor|date=1932-03-24|title=First international exhibition of etching opens at Institute|work=Chicago Tribune|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/355157858/|access-date=2022-02-18}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=1932-05-15|title=American etching|work=Philadelphia Inquirer|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/173323817/|access-date=2022-02-18}}</ref>
In December of that year, his etching “Light and Shadows” won the Charles M. Lea Prize for best etching in the First National Exhibition of Prints at the Print Club.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1932-12-25|title=In gallery and studio|work=Philadelphia Inquirer|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/173267788/|access-date=2022-02-18}}</ref> In 1934, his watercolor “Chinatown, Night” won a $400 prize in an exhibit at the Art Institute.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Jewett|first=Eleanor|date=1934-03-30|title=Foreign lands claim place in art exhibit|work=Chicago Tribune|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/355163698/|access-date=2022-02-18}}</ref>
In 1933, Crillon Galleries in Philadelphia held a one-man show of 26 nudes in watercolor, pastel and drawing in various poses. “There is nothing left to say about the female nude which Mr. Horter has not said,” stated a newspaper writer. “His exhibit is remarkably comprehensive and again reveals to how many artistic devices he can turn his facile and gifted hands.”<ref>{{Cite news|date=1933-03-19|title=In gallery and studio|work=Philadelphia Inquirer|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/173324448/|access-date=2022-02-18}}</ref>
In 1936, he was among 20 painters and three sculptors to represent Pennsylvania in the National Exhibition of American Art at the Rockefeller Center.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1936-05-17|title=Art notes (column)|work=Philadelphia Inquirer|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/174411605/|access-date=2022-02-18}}</ref> The Whitney Museum of American Art acquired one of his watercolors at its Second Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary American Watercolors and Pastels.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1936-04-05|title=Art column|work=Oakland Tribune|location=Oakland, CA|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/129171894/|access-date=2022-02-18}}</ref> His aquatint “Rainy Night, Chinatown” was selected by the Museum of Modern Art for an exhibit titled “Three Centuries of American Art” that was shown in Paris in 1936.<ref>{{Cite web|date=1938|title=Three Centuries of American Art (catalog in French)|url=https://assets.moma.org/documents/moma_catalogue_3597_300061928.pdf?_ga=2.244635661.909314053.1644262274-2098992004.1642882784|access-date=2022-02-18|website=Museum of Modern Art}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=1938|title=Exhibition of American Art, 1609-1938 (press release)|url=https://assets.moma.org/documents/moma_press-release_333079.pdf?_ga=2.237804680.909314053.1644262274-2098992004.1642882784|access-date=2022-02-18|website=Museum of Modern Art}}</ref>
In 1938, his aquatint “Along the Harlem,” which was created with African American artist Allan Freelon, won the Charles M. Lea Prize of $100 in an exhibit at the Print Club. Freelon studied with Horter in the late 1920s.<ref>{{Cite news|date=2004-10-03|title=Putting Freelon in context|work=Philadelphia Inquirer|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/200831227/|access-date=2022-02-18}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Lewis|first=R. Edward|date=1938-05-01|title=U.S. etchings in comeback|work=Philadelphia Inquirer|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/171213799/|access-date=2022-02-18}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |id={{ProQuest|492168308}} |title=Sororities to Present Work of Allan Freelon |newspaper=The Chicago Defender |date=17 March 1928 |page=4 }}</ref>
Horter was among a group of artists who produced etchings on the life of George Washington sponsored by the George Washington Memorial Association. A portfolio of 20 etchings was presented to the White House in 1932. In the mid-1930s, he was commissioned by the American Art Foundation to create patriotic etchings. His was “Washington at Braddock's Defeat.”<ref>{{Cite news|date=1932-10-09|title=Notes on art and artists|work=Evening Star|location=Washington, DC|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/619031658/|access-date=2022-02-18}}</ref><ref name=":20">{{Cite web|title=The Bicentennial Pageant of George Washington|url=https://emuseum.mountvernon.org/objects/16794/the-bicentennial-pageant-of-george-washington?ctx=78258e07442ff932b74e224d8d4a6e1088b05691|access-date=2022-02-18|website=George Washington's Mount Vernon}}</ref><ref name=":21">{{Cite web|title=Earl Horter, Still Life|url=https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/still-life-10799|access-date=2021-02-21|website=Smithsonian American Art Museum}}</ref>
In 1939, he was commissioned by the New Jersey Council to create reproductions of etchings of historic houses and buildings in the state. The reproductions were published weekly in local newspapers.<ref name=":5" /><ref>{{Cite news|date=1938-10-12|title=Historical New Jersey in pictures|work=The News|location=Paterson, NJ|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/526099811/|access-date=2022-02-18}}</ref> Another of his commissions was a promotional poster for the city of Ridgewood, NJ, (1916). A versatile artist, Horter also made portraits, including one of President Lincoln as a young man without a beard and another of Dr. George H. Meeker, dean of the Graduate School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (1933).<ref>{{Cite news|date=1916-10-26|title=Ridgewood poster|work=Ridgewood Herald|location=Ridgewood, NJ|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/632411197/|access-date=2022-02-18}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=1933-06-02|title=Dean Meeker honored|work=Philadelphia Inquirer|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/176376514|access-date=2022-02-18}}</ref><ref name=":0" />
Horter also produced still lifes, some of which are in museum collections.<ref name=":21" /><ref>{{Cite web|title=Earl Horter, Abstraction - Still Life #6|url=https://philamuseum.org/collection/object/300720|access-date=2022-02-21|website=Philadelphia Museum of Art}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Earl Horter, Abstract Still Life ("Still Life")|url=https://woodmereartmuseum.org/explore-online/collection/abstract-still-life-still-life|access-date=2022-02-21|website=Woodmere Art Museum}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Earl Horter, Still Life with Bottle and Glass|url=https://artcollection.lasalle.edu/objects-1/info?query=Portfolios%20%3D%20%2228%22%20and%20Disp_Maker_1%20%3D%20%22Earl%20Horter%22&sort=0&objectName=Still-life%20with%20Bottle%20and%20Glass|access-date=2022-02-21|website=La Salle University Art Museum}}</ref>
== His art collection == During the 1920s, Horter amassed an impressive collection of modern art, African sculptures and Native American art. Over the years, he loaned some to museum exhibitions. Even his friend Carles - as well as Leon Kelly - used the collection as inspiration for his own modernistic works.<ref name=":10">{{Cite web|title=Arthur B. Carles: Painting with color|url=https://archive.org/stream/cor5_0_s06_ss01_boxrg5_0_2008_019_10/cor5-0_s06_ss01_boxrg5-0-2008.019_10_djvu.txt|access-date=2022-02-18|website=Internet Archive|date=28 April 1984 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=1965-01-31|title=Leon Kelly exhibition|work=Baltimore Sun|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/376895547/|access-date=2022-02-21}}</ref>
Horter purchased his first painting in 1913 at the famous New York Armory show of modern art, which introduced Cubism and abstract art to America. He purchased 13 lithographs by French artist Édouard Vuillard.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Armory Show 1913 Complete List|url=https://armory.nyhistory.org/armory-show-1913-complete-list/|access-date=2022-02-18|website=New York History}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=1939-10-01|title=The story of modern art - No. 7|work=Los Angeles Times|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/385615974/|access-date=2022-02-18}}</ref><ref name=":1" /> Horter bought his first Picasso for $180, according to Carles.<ref name=":10" /> Horter made his purchases with the income he earned as a commercial artist.<ref name=":8" />
"I work so hard, and when I'm done I look at the work of some great master - he seems so universal like a wonderful thunderstorm - or like looking over the edge of Vesuvius - and I the little firecracker that goes off with a hiss - thank God I can detect greatness here and there and worship it," he stated.<ref name=":11">{{Cite news|title=Genius was his palette|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/style/1999/05/02/genius-was-his-palette/0a98ae70-de4c-41a0-bb0e-f20f4fdc1822/|access-date=2022-02-18|newspaper=Washington Post}}</ref>
Horter filled his Delancey Street home with the works of Pablo Picasso, Constantin Brancusi, Marcel Duchamp, Georges Braque, Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani and Juan Gris. He also purchased works by Charles Sheeler, an American precisionist painter, as well Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Maurice Denis, Käthe Kollwitz and Carles. At one point, his collection included 30 Cubist works by Picasso and Braque, two paintings by Gris and one by Matisse, and four sculptures by Brancusi.<ref name=":11" />
He owned Duchamp's “Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 1” (1911), Picasso's “Portrait of Daniel Henry Kahnweiler” (1910) and Sheeler's “Church Street El” (1920).<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web|title=Mad for Modernism: Earl Horter and His Collection|url=https://www.philamuseum.org/exhibitions/1999/20.html|access-date=2022-02-18|website=Philadelphia Museum of Art}}</ref>
Early in his collecting, he had about 80 African sculptures.<ref name=":8" /> He began collecting them in 1925 with the encouragement of Barnes, French art dealer Paul Guillaume and American photographer Alfred Stieglitz. Horter's collection contained a Guro mask from the Ivory Coast, Songye male figurines from Congo and a Kota reliquary guardian figure from Gabon.<ref name=":12" />
In 1934, the Philadelphia Museum of Art held a major exhibit of oils, watercolors and sculptures from his collection. There were eight Braque abstracts and still lifes, Duchamp's “Nude,” six Picassos, a Raoul Dufy, Matisse's “Portrait of a Lady,” Gris’ “Abstraction” and Giorgio de Chirico's “Warriors.”<ref>{{Cite news|last=Bonte|first=C.H.|date=1934-02-18|title=Earl Horter's collection of contemporary painting and sculpture on view at the art museum|work=Philadelphia Inquirer|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/176303064/|access-date=2022-02-18}}</ref>
Horter loaned “The Italian Woman” (1915) to the Museum of Modern Art for a Matisse exhibit in 1931. His book was included in the catalog's bibliography. In 1935, he loaned African sculptures in wood to the museum. In 1939, he loaned the museum a piece by Sheeler for its one-man show on the artist.<ref name=":9" /><ref>{{Cite web|date=1935|title=Exhibition of African Negro Art (press release)|url=https://www.moma.org/momaorg/shared/pdfs/docs/press_archives/233/releases/MOMA_1934-35_0048_1935-03-09_11-3-9-35.pdf|access-date=2022-02-18|website=Museum of Modern Art}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Museum of Modern Art holds one-man show of works by Charles Sheeler|url=https://www.moma.org/momaorg/shared/pdfs/docs/press_archives/540/releases/MOMA_1939_0071_1939-10-02_391002-64.pdf|access-date=2022-02-18|website=Museum of Modern Art}}</ref> The Arts Club of Chicago borrowed some works for a 1934 exhibition. In 1935, he loaned works to the Philadelphia Museum of Art for a show on abstracts. In 1936, Horter loaned works to the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, NY, for an exhibit on African art.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Herdle|first=Isabel C.|date=1936-04-05|title=African Negro art opens gallery's April exhibit|work=Democrat and Chronicle|location=Rochester, NY|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/135271316/?terms=%22earl%20horter%22|access-date=2022-02-19}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Jewett|first=Eleanor|date=1934-04-04|title=Show depicts full course of modern art|work=Chicago Tribune|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/355104371/|access-date=2022-02-19}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|date=1934|title=Modern paintings from the collection of Mr. Earl Horter of Philadelphia|oclc=77905179}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Bonte|first=C.H.|date=1935-04-12|title=Art Museum now presents showings of abstractions|work=Philadelphia Inquirer|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/173851114/|access-date=2022-02-19}}</ref>
During an exhibit at the Philadelphia Art Alliance in 1936, someone removed a Picasso abstract nude from the frame on a wall. Horter had donated the etching, which he valued at $500 and was insured.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1936-01-15|title=Etching stolen from Philadelphia exhibit|work=Gazette and Daily|location=York, PA|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/76123273/|access-date=2022-02-19}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=1936-01-15|title=Etching stolen from wall at Art Alliance exhibition|work=Philadelphia Inquirer|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/174579260/|access-date=2022-02-19}}</ref>
The Depression hit Horter hard, and he was forced to sell many of his famous works. He tried selling the entire collection to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, but its trustees were not interested.<ref name=":8" /> He sold the paintings to private individuals over the years, and many of the works eventually ended up in museum collections.<ref name=":11" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":12" /> He began focusing on increasing his holdings of Native American artifacts. By the late 1930s, he had accumulated about 1,500 pieces of Native American artifacts, including war bonnets and weapons.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":17">{{Cite news|date=1940-03-30|title=Earl Horter dies; noted art teacher|work=Philadelphia Inquirer|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/171087391/|access-date=2022-02-19}}</ref>
In 1969, his widow Helen showed her collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art for the first time since the 1934 Horter exhibit: three paintings by Sheeler, four by Carles, several by Braque and Picasso, along with works by Horter.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Kaplan|first=Ruth Jillya|date=1969-07-24|title=Cubists, impressionists, Eakins, Duchamp beckons|work=News Journal|location=Wilmington, DE|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/154723653|access-date=2022-02-19}}</ref>
In 1999, the Philadelphia Museum of Art re-assembled most of the collection, borrowing them from museums for the exhibit "Mad for Modernism." They had been dispersed to such institutions as the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the National Museum of the American Indian, and 40 other public and private collections.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1998-10-13|title=The mighty Delacroix and so much more|work=Philadelphia Inquirer|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/178633162/|access-date=2022-02-19}}</ref><ref name=":8" /><ref name=":13" /><ref name=":11" /> The Philadelphia Sketch Club, which he joined in 1919, presented a complementary show at the time.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Sozanski|first=Edward J.|date=1999-04-30|title=Horter and gand|work=Philadelphia Inquirer|agency=via www.newspapers.|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/179461105/|access-date=2022-02-19}}</ref>
== Years as a teacher == Horter offered classes privately and at public institutions. He taught evening classes at the Graphic Sketch Club (now the Fleischer Art Center) in Philadelphia starting in 1930. Dox Thrash took printmaking classes from him and was one of his favorite students. Horter was just beginning to learn aquatint himself in the early 1930s. Horter and Thrash participated in an annual exhibition of prints by Philadelphia artists in 1939, where Horter won Honorable Mention for his aquatint "Alleyway, Philadelphia." Thrash was represented with the carborundum print "Repose."<ref name=":14">{{Cite book|last=Ittmann|first=John|title=Dox Thrash: An American master printmaker rediscovered|publisher=Philadelphia Museum of Art|year=2002}}</ref> Thrash was inspired to co-develop the carborundum-print process after hearing Horter mention that no significant improvement had been made in printmaking in nearly a century.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Wood|first=Jerry|date=1940|title=A new print process|work=Crisis magazine|agency=via Google Books.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KFsEAAAAMBAJ&dq=earl+horter+and+wpa&pg=PA379|access-date=2022-02-19}}</ref><ref name=":14" />
Horter also taught at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art (now the University of the Arts), Stella Elkins Tyler School of Art at Temple University (now Tyler School of Art) and the University of Pennsylvania night school.<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite news|date=1933-09-24|title=New course added in industrial art|work=Philadelphia Inquirer|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/176238092/|access-date=2022-02-19}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=1935-10-03|title=One school you can't fail in, if you want to be a real artist|work=Reedley Exponent|location=Reedley, CA|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/698513974/|access-date=2022-02-19}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=1940-03-30|title=Earl Horter, obituary|work=Morning News|location=Wilmington, DE|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/160649588/|access-date=2022-02-19}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Earl Horter Collection|url=http://dla.library.upenn.edu/dla/pacscl/ead.html?fq=date_facet%3A%221950-2000%22&id=PACSCL_PMA_PUBLICUSPPPMHOREarlHorterCollectionhttpwwwphilamuseumorgresourcesarchivesFindingAidHORxmlUSPPPM|access-date=2022-02-19|website=Philadelphia Museum of Art Archives}}</ref><ref name=":17" /> During the summers, he taught at an art colony in Rockport, MA.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1934-08-08|title=Joins art colony (photograph caption)|work=Morning News|location=Wilmington, DE|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/160351369/|access-date=2022-02-19}}</ref> He also gave private art classes in homes.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Bonte|first=C.H.|date=1932-03-25|title=In gallery and studio|work=Philadelphia Inquirer|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/168108108|access-date=2022-02-21}}</ref>
A month after arriving at the museum school in 1933, he and another faculty member won the two prizes in the Philadelphia Watercolor Club exhibition. It was the first time the prizes had been awarded to two instructors at the school. He won $200 for best group picture.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1933-11-06|title=Club's two prizes for watercolors go to instructors|work=Philadelphia Inquirer|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/176359134/|access-date=2022-02-19}}</ref>
== Marriages and personal life == In addition to having a home in Philadelphia, Horter also had a place in Harvey Cedars, NJ. A small man in stature, he often wore the same suit, drove big cars, and loved hats, sailing and the company of women.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":11" /><ref name=":10" />
He married four times - in 1903 to Edith, with whom he moved to New York. The next wife was Swedish; her name was Elin, whom he married in 1909. Their separation hearing in 1915 made newspaper headlines. In court, she accused him of reneging on a loan from her to pay alimony to his first wife. She also accused him of having an affair. Horter denied it (in his marriage certificate to his fourth wife Elizabeth, he listed the cause of his previous divorce as adultery; he didn't mention who was the adulterer). He said he was leaving Elin because she, like him, had expensive tastes in such things as art and furniture.<ref name=":16" /><ref>{{Cite news|date=1915-09-26|title=Suit shows wife paid alimony to her predecessor|work=Leavenworth Times|location=Leavenworth, KY|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/76816841/|access-date=2022-02-19}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Earl Horter|url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:243Q-T6G?treeref=9Z92-2BN|access-date=2022-02-19|website=Family Search}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Earl Horter|url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M5H8-L9F|access-date=2022-02-19|website=Family Search}}</ref><ref name=":15">{{Cite web|title=Earl Horter|url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-6XG9-SG?cc=1589502|access-date=2022-02-19|website=Family Search}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=1915-04-06|title=Artist lavishes cash on another|work=Courier Post-Telegram|location=Camden, NJ|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/445955132/|access-date=2022-02-19}}</ref>
His next two wives, Helen and Elizabeth, were also artists.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Sozanski|first=Edward J.|date=1996-10-18|title=A show focusing more on artists than on ar|work=Philadelphia Inquirer|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/179503952/|access-date=2022-02-19}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=1943-01-10|title=Mrs. Horter's art|work=Philadelphia Inquirer|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/171413061/|access-date=2022-02-19}}</ref> Horter was with Helen when he lost the Delancey Street home in a sheriff's sale in 1937.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1937-10-18|title=Sheriff's sales|work=Philadelphia Inquirer|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/171122281/|access-date=2022-02-19}}</ref> He married Elizabeth in 1938.<ref name=":15" />
== Death and aftermath == Horter died of a heart attack on March 29, 1940, at his home "Beech Knoll" in the Chestnut Hill neighborhood of Philadelphia. (In 1939, he had mailed a Christmas card with an aquatint of the front of the house.)<ref>{{Cite web|title=Christmas Card with Earl Horter's aquatint of his home "Beech Knoll" in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia|url=https://www.philamuseum.org/collection/object/92443|access-date=2022-02-19|website=Philadelphia Museum of Art}}</ref> The night before, he had been at a banquet and symposium for a show at the Philadelphia Art Alliance.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1940-03-31|title=Local artist exhibits work in Philadelphia|work=Morning Call|location=Allentown, PA|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/280018885/|access-date=2022-02-19}}</ref><ref name=":17" /><ref>{{Cite news|title=Earl Horter|work=Morning News|location=Wilmington, DE|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/160649588/|access-date=2022-02-19}}</ref> He had one son, Donald, with his second wife Elin.<ref name=":16" /><ref name=":17" />
A month later, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts included in an exhibit a flora study said to have been completed a few days before he died.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1940-04-14|title=Flowers and Horter|work=Philadelphia Inquirer|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/171087927/|access-date=2022-02-19}}</ref> The Print Club displayed several of his works in an exhibit as a memorial.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1940-04-28|title=Horter memorial|work=Philadelphia Inquirer|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/171093561/|access-date=2022-02-19}}</ref>
In November, the Art Alliance mounted a solo exhibition, with each of its galleries displaying different aspects of his works, from watercolors and oils to etchings to lithographs to commercial art.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1940-11-09|title=Art Alliance pays tribute to memory of Horter|work=Philadelphia Inquirer|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/171402978/|access-date=2022-02-19}}</ref> Woodmere held its own memorial show in 1941.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1941-11-16|title=Woodmere's new exhibit|work=Philadelphia Inquirer|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/171529864/|access-date=2022-02-19}}</ref>
The Philadelphia Sketch Club also held an exhibit, and Horter's “gang,” the male students he taught to etch, produced a brochure to accompany it. The brochure recounted the origin of the group: While having lunch one day, his students, who gave him the pet name “Bill,” kidded him about how easy it must be to etch. It was so easy, he agreed, that he could teach it to “this crowd of morons.”<ref>{{Cite news|date=1940-12-29|title=Brochure pays tribute to Earl Horter leadership|work=Philadelphia Inquirer|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/171413215/|access-date=2022-02-19}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=1940-12-01|title=On view in art galleries in city and suburbs|work=Philadelphia Inquirer|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/171367051/|access-date=2022-02-19}}</ref>
Horter's imprint was lasting. Every decade after his death, his works were shown often in museums and galleries. Today, very few people know his name. At an auction house in 2010, a house-cleanout man dumped a milk crate full of Horter etchings under a table for the auction house to sort. The man did not recognize his name. The auctioneer did.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Howard|first=Sherry L.|title=ART WITH HEART: How I Built a Sweet Collection by Buying Cheap at Auction|year=2021}}</ref>
== Selected collections ==
* Philadelphia Museum of Art<ref name=":11" /><ref name=":8" /> * Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts<ref>{{Cite web|title=Earl Horter, "Toledo"|url=https://www.pafa.org/museum/collection/item/toledo-0|access-date=2022-02-20|website=Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts|date=21 May 2015 }}</ref> * Metropolitan Museum of Art<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Dark Tower, Earl Horter|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/857700|access-date=2022-02-20|website=Metropolitan Museum of Art}}</ref> * Library of Congress<ref>{{Cite web|title=Earl Horter, Ye Old Curiosity Shop|url=https://www.loc.gov/item/2003667779/|access-date=2022-02-20|website=Library of Congress}}</ref> * Free Library of Philadelphia<ref name=":4" /> * Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco<ref name=":1" /> * National Gallery of Art<ref>{{Cite web|title=Earl Horter|url=https://www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.4386.html|access-date=2022-02-20|website=National Gallery of Art}}</ref> * Whitney Museum of American Art<ref>{{Cite web|title=Earl Horter, The Chrysler Building, Night|url=https://whitney.org/collection/works/4381|access-date=2022-02-20|website=Whitney Museum of America Art}}</ref> * Amon Carter Museum of American Art<ref>{{Cite web|title=Earl Horter|url=https://www.cartermuseum.org/artists/earl-horter|access-date=2022-02-20|website=Amon Carter Museum of American Art}}</ref> * Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Garden<ref name=":6" /> * Worcester Art Museum<ref>{{Cite web|title=Earl Horter, Storage tanks|url=https://worcester.emuseum.com/objects/30111/storage-tanks?ctx=2a9e867a-7d5b-4aa4-ba65-123cb58fb8e0&idx=2|access-date=2022-02-20|website=Worcester Art Museum}}</ref> * Carnegie Museum of Art<ref>{{Cite web|title=Earl Horter, Broadway and 186th Street|url=https://collection.cmoa.org/objects/b0b93370-da4e-433b-9de1-87a29931d956|access-date=2022-02-20|website=Carnegie Museum of Art}}</ref> * Smithsonian American Art Museum<ref>{{Cite web|title=Earl Horter|url=https://americanart.si.edu/artist/earl-horter-2312|access-date=2022-02-20|website=Smithsonian American Art Museum}}</ref> * Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art<ref>{{Cite web|title=Earl Horter|url=https://art.nelson-atkins.org/objects/11458/storefront-28th-street-new-york;jsessionid=E3BEE17AA0B4B4060FBC5557B3F0E110?ctx=8ad000ed-35d4-4088-9684-843b8160e204&idx=599|access-date=2022-02-20|website=Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art}}</ref> * Brooklyn Museum<ref>{{Cite web|title=Earl Horter, Middle Alley, Philadelphia|url=https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/154783|access-date=2022-02-20|website=Brooklyn Museum}}</ref> * Seattle Art Museum<ref>{{Cite web|title=Earl Horter|url=https://art.seattleartmuseum.org/people/4522/earl-horter;jsessionid=33A1FD662A57CB2ABBA05A2F9CE25D9B|access-date=2022-02-20|website=Seattle Art Museum}}</ref> * Minneapolis Institute of Art<ref>{{Cite web|title=Earl Horter, The Dark Tower|url=https://collections.artsmia.org/art/106823/the-dark-tower-earl-horter|access-date=2022-02-20|website=Minneapolis Institute of Art}}</ref> * Yale University Art Gallery<ref>{{Cite web|title=Earl Horter|url=https://artgallery.yale.edu/collections/objects/23971|access-date=2022-02-20|website=Yale University Art Gallery}}</ref> * Mount Vernon<ref name=":20" /> * Cincinnati Art Museum<ref>{{Cite web|title=Earl Horter|url=https://www.cincinnatiartmuseum.org/media/137324/2017_cam_annual_report_rd6.pdf|access-date=2022-02-20|website=Cincinnati Art Museum}}</ref> * Art Institute of Chicago<ref>{{Cite web|title=Earl Horter, Chinatown Night|url=https://www.artic.edu/artworks/18583/chinatown-night|access-date=2022-02-20|website=Art Institute of Chicago}}</ref> * Woodmere Art Museum<ref>{{Cite web|title=Earl Horter|url=https://woodmereartmuseum.org/explore-online/collection/?1enivq0p47b53dlg&filter_27=264&cc=p|access-date=2022-02-20|website=Woodmere Art Museum}}</ref>
== Selected other exhibitions ==
* Whitney Museum of American Art, 1978<ref>{{Cite news|last=Russell|first=John|title=Whitney Gathers Drawings Harvest|work=The New York Times |date=28 July 1978 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/07/28/archives/whitney-gathers-drawings-harvest-whitney-drawings.html|access-date=2022-02-20}}</ref> * Woodmere Art Museum, 1977, 2007<ref>{{Cite book|date=2007|title=Angels, alleys and animal acts: Prints by Julius Bloch, Robert Riggs, G. ralph smith, Earl Horter, and Benton Spruance|oclc=181017883}}</ref><ref name=":19" /> * Cleveland Museum of Art, 1989<ref>{{Cite news|date=1989-09-12|title=Illustration Exhibit|work=Akron Beacon Journal|location=Akron, Ohio|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/155815539/|access-date=2022-02-20}}</ref> * Tampa Museum of Art, 1995<ref>{{Cite news|date=1995-02-10|title=Cityscapes tour century in New York|work=Tampa Tribune|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/325565952/|access-date=2022-02-20}}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Horter, Earl}} Category:1880 births Category:1940 deaths Category:20th-century American etchers Category:American watercolorists Category:20th-century American art collectors Category:American cubist artists Category:20th-century American illustrators Category:American printmakers Category:American abstract painters Category:20th-century American male artists Category:20th-century American painters Category:Painters from Philadelphia Category:Self-taught artists