Melting Brass: Oil Furnace Pouring Brass with High Zinc Content, Ajax Metal Co.

Item

Title

Melting Brass: Oil Furnace Pouring Brass with High Zinc Content, Ajax Metal Co.

Creator

Catherine Morris Wright
Wyncote, Pennsylvania 1899-1988 Jamestown, Rohde Island

Date

1936

Materials

oil on canvas

Measurements

25 x 30 in.

Description

Ajax Metal Company was a major industrial force in Philadelphia providing brass and bronze ingots for military, railroad, and marine use. Ajax Metal commissioned Wright, primarily as a landscape and figure painter, to paint Melting Brass. Later, she was commissioned by the U.S. Navy and the University of Pennsylvania to paint the USS Astoria, a ship under construction at the Cramp Shipbuilding Company in Philadelphia in 1942.

Wright grew up in Philadelphia, studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, and became an accomplished artist winning several awards, honors, and commissions. Retrospective exhibitions of Wright’s work were held by Rhode Island’s Newport Art Association in 1952 and the Woodmere Art Gallery in Philadelphia in 1954.

Identifier

EMS020

Rights

These images are posted publicly for non-profit educational uses, excluding printed publication. Other uses may not be permitted. For additional information about usage rights or to request permission to use an image contact museum@ems.psu.edu