Painting

It has been said that Philadelphia needs more exhibits that give living American artists a boost, particularly displays attempting to explore our region's "new talent" pool. Shows like that are welcome any time because such artists, after they win their first recognition, still have an uphill struggle to attain wider success. Certainly, talent-search shows that start serious artists on their way are worth more than the chic developments along gallery row. The Art Alliance has just mounted a competitive new-talent display titled "Contemporary Philadelphia Painting.

One Philadelphia institution may soon be $68 million richer, and another may soon be . . . outta here. Question is: Did it have to be this way? Last week, Thomas Jefferson University's governing board voted to sell Thomas Eakins' painting The Gross Clinic for $68 million. Jeff wants the money for a worthy cause: To help to pay for a needed expansion of its Center City campus. Still, since this is a masterpiece by the city's greatest painter, the question nags: Is it really necessary for this core piece of Philadelphia's cultural heritage to be shipped out this way?

A Burbank, Calif., artist has set his sights on being lionized when the national membership of the big-game-hunting Safari Club meets Jan. 18 through 21 at Bally's hotel in Reno, Nev. One of the highlights of the convention will be the organization's fund- raising auction, with money going to lobby against any legislation aimed at eradicating or inhibiting hunting in the United States, according to convention organizer Susan Miller. Among the oddities offered will be an example of the artwork of Edwin Finkbeiner of Burbank.

American still-life painting originated in Philadelphia at the end of the 18th century with the Peale family. Two centuries later, it remains a vigorous tradition. Schwarz Gallery has assembled an exhibition that traces the history of that tradition from its beginnings to the middle of this century. The show features a number of works by the Peale family, including a recently identified major still life by Raphaelle Peale. In a sense, the Schwarz exhibition extends the section devoted to still life in the Peale family show at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Raphaelle, the most talented still-life painter in his family, figures prominently in that part of the museum show.

The Jolly Flatboatmen, a painting by George Caleb Bingham, has been sold for $6 million, the highest price ever paid for a work by an American artist. The Pell Family Trust, headed by Sen. Claiborne Pell (D., R.I.), sold the painting to Detroit art collector Richard Manoogian. Manoogian is chairman and chief executive officer of Masco Corp., a manufacturer of furniture, housewares and industrial tools. He has been a major collector of 19th-century American paintings for more than a decade and serves on the 31-member trustees' council of the National Gallery of Art in Washington.

THERE HAS BEEN A LOT OF discussion among many constituencies regarding the future of education in the city of Philadelphia. We share a common goal of improving education for the children of this great city. With that in mind, we should remember that sharing accurate information is critical to a successful process and outcome. In a recent Daily News column entitled "Looks like Edison has a lot to learn," columnist Jill Porter accused Edison of being "clueless about something as uncomplicated as the cost of painting a school.

The 16th-century portrait was a bargaining chip in the spring of 1943. Friedrich and Louise Gutmann, a Jewish couple from a prominent banking family, hoped to trade it for their lives. Adolf Hitler's art dealer ordered the painting, along with others from the famous Gutmann collection, shipped to Germany in exchange for the couple's safe passage from the Netherlands to Italy. But the Nazis reneged on the deal. The Gutmanns ended up in concentration camps, where they died, and their 1509 painting - Portrait of a Young Man by the German artist Hans Baldung Grien - mysteriously disappeared on the way to Berlin.

There's something a little fishy about John Cennimo and Bryan Peterzak. By day, they're graphic artists at a Mount Laurel firm. In their off-hours, though, they run Angling Art Studios in Mount Holly, where they immortalize an angler's special memory in a custom painting. Their hook: They help promote catch-and-release fishing by offering to paint a replica of your trophy fish from a photograph or your best recollection. These paintings are hung instead of having the real thing mounted above your mantle.

In February, Nicholas P. Santoleri first walked the perimeter of a tranquil pond in Concord, Mass. Slowly wandering the mile-and-a-half path through the woods around the pond, he examined the rocks at the shoreline and watched ripples on the surface of the water. "I would walk around the pond to keep my head clear," Santoleri said. "When I did that, things seemed to fall into place. " The pond is Walden Pond, famous as Henry David Thoreau's inspiration. Thoreau lived in a small cabin at the water's edge from 1845 to 1847, and it was there that he wrote many of his books and essays and formed theories about nature.

Decades ago, the neat, sensible box in which the art world had attempted to pack away painterly realist art began to show signs of cracking. This happened after abstract art seemed to have taken over the globe and artists of all stripes were clinging to it. Lois Dodd is one painter among many who benefited from the shift of attitude. She had been there all along, painting landscapes her way - from direct observation, with no affectation, and with generous brushfuls of oil paint.