Distinguished Grace: The Paintings of Dean Stambaugh

Distinguished Grace: The Paintings of Dean Stambaugh

Pennsylvania native Dean Stambaugh (b. 1911), artist, mentor, and friend, was known to be an eccentric and distinguished presence. For forty years, Stambaugh served as a beloved art teacher at St. Albans School in Washington, DC. Over the four decades of his career at St. Albans, hundreds of students passed through Stambaugh’s classroom – a lively space in which he kept singing birds, plants, and, at one point, a rooster. However, focused on the education and nurturing of his students, Stambaugh rarely shared his own artwork.

Prior to joining St. Albans’s staff as the Head of the Department of Freehand Drawing, Stambaugh attended summer classes at Pennsylvania State College, now known as Penn State University. Stambaugh studied under artist Hobson Pittman, eventually becoming his assistant teacher and valued friend. The summer classes proved to be a formative experience for Stambaugh, which evolved into a yearly tradition. At the conclusion of each school year, Stambaugh returned to his home state of Pennsylvania and tenderly painted its rolling hills, quiet paths, and lush landscapes.

Distinguished Grace: The Paintings of Dean Stambaugh celebrates and showcases the work created by Stambaugh throughout his career and lifetime. His paintings draw influence from fellow Regionalist and Appalachian artists, displaying a reverence for rural life, peaceful isolation, and vast expanses of nature.

“In order to paint well one must first learn to see. There are many ways of seeing, but the student painter must concern himself mainly with seeing factually, yet with imagination.”

• • Dean Stambaugh, Statement on Teaching, “Art in Secondary Schools” brochure, St. Albans School, 1959