Ranulph de Bayeux Bye, Artist
Bill Schenley
http://www.realcities.com/mld/inquirer/news/obituaries/7407940.htm
Ranulph de Bayeux Bye, 87, of Mechanicsville, one of America's premier
watercolorists, whose paintings of rural Bucks County scenes and other
vintage subjects are displayed at the Smithsonian Institution and
other major museums, died Nov. 19 of pneumonia at Pine Run
Transitional Center in Doylestown.
Last year, 44 oils and drawings by Mr. Bye, who had an affection for
weathered and ramshackle buildings, were exhibited at Woodmere Gallery
in Chestnut Hill.
Inquirer art critic Edward Sozanski wrote: "It's traditional painting,
to be sure, but tradition honored so skillfully is never out of date."
Of the watercolors of Bucks County farm buildings, Sozanski wrote:
"They are not only beautifully painted, they reflect on the inevitable
decay that characterizes the countryside."
Mr. Bye grew up in Swarthmore and Bucks County. He attended the
Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art, now the University of
the Arts, and the Art Students League in New York. During World War
II, he served stateside in the Army.
For 30 years, he taught watercolor at Moore College of Art, retiring
in 1979. His paintings are in collections at Moore, the Boston Museum
of Fine Art, the Reading Museum, the Smithsonian and the Railroad
Museum of Pennsylvania in Strasburg.
Mr. Bye made dozens of paintings of railroad depots, including the
Upsal and Wissahickon stations in Philadelphia, the Main Line
Strafford station, and the Doylestown station in Bucks County. A
Smithsonian curator credited Mr. Bye with capturing the architectural
significance of disappearing depots, which were once important
community centers.
Mr. Bye's wife, Glenna Lange Bye, said her husband's concern for
historic preservation was the subject of two of his books: The
Vanishing Depot and Victorian Sketchbook. A talented writer as well as
a painter, he also published Ranulph Bye's Bucks County, A Collection
of Old Firehouses, and Painting Buildings in Watercolor.
Mr. Bye had been elected to the National Academy of Design and had
received an honorary doctorate from Bucks County Community College. He
had been honored by the Bucks County Historical Society and by the
Doylestown Historical Society.
In addition to his wife of 21 years, he is survived by his sons,
Dennis and Stephen; daughters Catherine Castor and Barbara; stepsons
Curt and Eric Lange; stepdaughter Sherrie Lange; a sister; and six
grandchildren. His former wife, Mary McCarty Bye, is deceased.
A memorial service will be at 2 p.m. Saturday at Buckingham Friends
Meeting on U.S. Route 202 in Lahaska. Burial was private. Memorial
donations may be made to the art exhibition fund, Phillips Mill
Community Association, Box 1, New Hope, Pa. 18938.
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