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"Scenic Views: Painters from the Scalp Level School Revisited," which opens today at Westmoreland Museum of American Art, offers visitors a rare glimpse at the work of a remarkable group of painters strongly tied to Western Pennsylvania.

"They have never been on public view," Westmoreland Director Judith H. O'Toole says about the 72 paintings by 23 artists on loan from 21 private and three public collections. "Most all of them have come on the market within the last decade, or they have been in family hands for a very long time."

Like the Hudson River School, America's most beloved group of 19th-century landscape painters, the Scalp Level School was a loosely knit group of artists who journeyed into the woods to capture the fading beauty of America's countryside. But instead of leaving New York City to paint the majestic views of the Hudson River Valley, the Catskills and the Adirondack Mountains, they left the smoky streets of Pittsburgh to paint landscapes in a remote area near Johnstown, and sometimes, beyond.

Undoubtedly Western Pennsylvania's most significant landscape and still-life painter of the 19th-century, George Hetzel (1826-99), was instrumental in the formation of the Scalp Level School of painting. Scalp Level is an area near Johnstown where Paint Creek and Little Paint Creek converge.

Reportedly while on a fishing trip to that area in 1866, Hetzel was so taken with the beauty of the surrounding woodlands that he convinced his colleagues, many of whom he taught alongside at the Pittsburgh School of Design, to return with him on a painting excursion the next summer. In the years that followed, groups of artists and students returned to the area with Hetzel more or less on a regular basis. Hence, they became known as the Scalp Level School.

Like the works of the Hudson River School, which reflected three themes of America in the 19th century -- discovery, exploration and settlement -- many of the works on display do much the same.

Take, for example, "View Along the Allegheny near Aspinwall, Pa." (1867) by William Coventry Wall (1810-86). The artist has offered subtle, and not so subtle, hints regarding man's encroachment on nature -- a cut tree stump in the foreground, farmer's tending to a field that lay next to train tracks in the middle ground, and, in the distance, across the river, smoke rises from the stack of a small mill.

But what this exhibition reveals beyond that is that many of these painters were just as adept at capturing other subjects.

O'Toole says, in addition to presenting these remarkable paintings to the public for the first time, she intended to expand on the idea that the Scalp Level School painters weren't just focused on a particular place. "They painted a lot of different places," O'Toole says. "Like the Hudson River School artists, they went all over the country.

"People tend to think that these artists were isolated, working just in Pittsburgh. Or that Pittsburgh was a backwater town. But they were very tuned in to the national movement. They traveled to New York and Philadelphia and exhibited there. Hetzel lived in Philadelphia for a year. He lived in New York for a couple of months. They were very well connected."

Featuring plantation workers in a field, "Black Berry Gatherers" (1919), likely painted in the Carolinas by Martin B. Leisser (1846-1940), is a ready example. And the sandy shore in A. Bryan Wall's (1861-1935) "Magnolia Beach Scene" (no date) is, no doubt, not from around these parts.

Another artist who painted at Magnolia Beach, Mass., was Joseph R. Woodwell (1843-1911). Having been introduced to the Massachusetts shore by the Frick family, Woodwell bought a cottage at Magnolia in 1888 where he spent many summers working with a subject that brought out a painterly technique. His painting "Magnolia by the Sea" (1910) captures the tranquility the area offered the artist.

Another notable work by Woodwell on display is "The Whirlpool, Niagara Falls" (1899). Here, the artist has captured another much-loved favorite of the Hudson River School painters, Niagara Falls. But instead of capturing the awesome beauty that could be seen in the front of the falls, Woodwell chose to also render the view from above the falls -- in essence, behind the natural wonder. He also painted an iconic view of the falls from the front. It's not displayed here, but is just as magnificent.

Scalp Level School painters did not focus solely on boulder-strewn streams and river valley scenes. Still life also was a very popular subject. Perhaps no greater example is Hetzel's piece "Lake Ducks," painted in 1864. Here several ducks and a mallard are convincingly rendered after the hunt to almost Trompe L'oeil effect. Just as captivating are several still lifes by Albert F. King (1854-1945), including "Watermelon with Apples," (no date), which is so vibrant and highly detailed it appears as if it is the real thing.

It's no coincidence that this exhibit has been arranged and is on display now. With the coming year will arrive the 50th anniversary of the founding of Westmoreland Museum of American Art. And although this exhibition builds on founding director Dr. Paul A. Chew's research, it is O'Toole's hope that many more paintings and insights about the painters of this most important group of Western Pennsylvania painters comes to light.

"We're hoping that this exhibition will bring even more paintings out of the woodwork," O'Toole says, "because interest in these artists is certainly on the rise."

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