Larry Day, Landscape

Larry Day gave this drawing as a gift to the artist Peter Paone, who in turn has given the work to Woodmere.

Born in Philadelphia, Day attended Temple University's Tyler School of Art under the GI Bill. Although his earliest work was representational and used traditional glazing techniques, his road to abstraction was inspired by the vivid color and radical simplicity in the work of Henri Matisse (French, 1869–1954). In 1948, the Philadelphia Museum of Art organized a large exhibition of Matisse's work, which proved to be a watershed moment for Day.

In 1953, Day was hired to teach at the Philadelphia Museum School of Art (now the University of the Arts), where he remained an influential instructor for many decades, including to his student Peter Paone.