The Ancient Valley

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Raphael Gleitsmann started his artistic journey as a young man during the Great Depression, painting in a realistic and often idealized manner, depicting pastoral scenes and town squares on wintry nights. However, Gleitsmann’s art was radically changed by his experiences as a combat engineer in World War II from 1943–1945, for which he received a Purple Heart. His realistic works were replaced by abstracted, expressionistic renderings inspired by the death and desolation he had seen in Europe. Although he still created landscapes, the tone became very different, with moody scenes of cemeteries, lone churches, and ominous skies evoking the nineteenth-century English sublime tradition. With this new style, Gleitsmann gained national recognition, winning first prize at the prestigious Carnegie Museum Invitational in 1948, before retiring from painting at the age of forty-four.

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