Cohn’s colorful creations of ordinary, everyday events and people remind one of the Impressionist masters. More information at 215-248-2549.[/caption]

by Karen Plourde

Artist Philip Cohn might say he stands on the shoulders of giants, French and Italian painters like Renoir, Cezanne, Masaccio and Bellini, whose work he first saw in Europe while serving in World War II. Those classic paintings influenced him to continue his art education and fueled a desire to make art that has lasted for 70 years. “Traditions are very important for an artist to be influenced by,” he said last week. “It’s a learning process. It’s an education process.”

Cohn, 90, is currently exhibiting a collection of his oil paintings at the Chestnut Hill Gallery, 8117 Germantown Ave. The exhibit, entitled “Everyday Impressions,” showcases Cohn’s renderings, many of which are classic scenes in and around Philadelphia — Mummers marching on Broad Street, bathers at the Jersey Shore and lunchers at Reading Terminal Market, for example. Those paintings start as sketches that Cohn then takes back to his studio in Bala Cynwyd and expands upon.

“It’s work, but...like a child likes work, y’know, he gets involved with it, and before you know it, you’re lost in a picture, and you try to develop it, as far as you can go,” Cohn, now a resident of Fairmount, told us in an interview last week.

A native of Vineland, N.J., Cohn came to Philadelphia as a teenager, finished high school and was drafted into the Army. He said he always drew but that his first experience with seeing important pictures happened in Paris at the Musee Nationale d’Art Moderne, part of which opened during the World War II.

After returning home, Cohn formalized his art education. He studied at both the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) and The Barnes Foundation in the late 1940s. In 1949 he was awarded the Cresson European Scholarship for painting, which afforded him the opportunity to study abroad. He went on to study traditional Italian painting techniques in Florence, Italy, in the 1950s.

Cohn’s subject matter has been comprised of “everyday people doing everyday activities,” as he explains it. He creates scenes that viewers can immediately identify with as he also strives to incorporate influences of Italian, French and Dutch styles of painting. Although he uses these various regions for his inspiration, he ultimately depicts the world from the everyday American experience. His life in Philadelphia, coupled with his international studies, have given him a worldly foundation for his subjects. He is master at portraying the human condition.

“Whatever period they were in (the artists), I always felt that I got something out of it, hopefully,” he told us. “As far as teachers go, the teachers can’t teach you art. They can only try to inspire you for a direction.”

Philip Cohn, who is 90 years old, currently has an exhibit of his oil paintings, “Everyday Impressions,” at the Chestnut Hill Gallery, 8117 Germantown Ave., until Sept. 27. (Photo by Frankie Plourde)[/caption]

Cohn highly values his studies at the Barnes and its scientific approach to looking at a picture. “When he (Albert Barnes) talks about Renoir, how Renoir was influenced early by Courbet and Manet, you can see it, and that’s why it’s so good at the Barnes because you have the paintings right there in front of you.”

To help support himself, Cohn worked nights at a printing shop owned by a classmate at PAFA and painted during the day. He and his current wife, Colette, traveled all over the world before health and age sidelined them. Those travels also influenced his work. “Wherever I go, I draw, get many ideas,” Cohn said. “I go to museums wherever I am, and there’s much to draw upon, especially in Europe, their traditions of buildings and the way the people live.”

Lindsey Snyder, gallery associate at the Chestnut Hill Gallery, describes Cohn as a New Age Impressionist. “[He’s] using everyday, mundane subjects, and yet, a very prolific way of painting, which is Impressionism,” she said. “So he’s taking something, y’know, every day and using this way of painting that is so classical, and it takes a lot of talent to do something like that.”

For his part, Cohn rejects being called an Impressionist. “Anybody could say they’re Impressionist,” he said. “I’m certainly influenced by the French painters of that time, Cezanne and Renoir, important painters. And I’ve always followed the traditions that I know of. People, places, events are my starting point for compositing a picture…Wherever I am, I become part of the living environment involved in the everyday world."

Regardless of the category he’s placed in, Cohn is a firm believer in approaching painting like any other job. “It’s just a question of working,” he insisted. “It’s working, working, working, and there is enjoyment in the sense that it has to be done and that in the trying there are many failures, but there are some I feel are successful.”

“Everyday Impressions” continues at the Chestnut Hill Gallery through Sept. 27. For more information, call 215-248-2549, or visit www.chestnuthillgallery.com.