Conrad Roland's Posthumous 1958 Exhibit at Lehigh University

With a look at the posthumous exhibition of Conrad Roland’s ornithological work, we continue our series on artists whose work was exhibited at Lehigh University Gallery under the aegis of Francis Quirk. The image of Quirk with a Lehigh alumnus below was published after the opening in the April 15, 1958 edition of the Brown andWhite. 

We do not know the specific discussion around featuring Roland’s work, however, we find it commendable that Lehigh provided this member of the valley's arts community with this belated honor.

Conrad Roland Biography

Conrad Roland was born in Reading, Pennsylvania in 1900. At the age of 17, Roland joined the Delaware Valley Ornithology Club and was on the Academy of Natural Science’s orbit. Although he loved learning about and observing birds and nature, Roland went on to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. He was a student of Louis Agassiz Fuertes, widely considered second only to John James Audubon as the most prolific American bird artist. In 1936, he and his wife Marie Palmore moved to Kempton, Pennsylvania where he spent the next 20 years studying and painting birds. Kempton is the home of Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, a premier location for watching migrating raptors. In winter he frequently traveled to Clearwater, Florida to sell paintings. He also would mentor Fred Wetzel who achieved considerable acclaim and commercial success with his paintings of birds and nature.

He was known to paint thirty images a day and he has works in the collection of the Reading Public Museum.

Conrad Roland died in 1957. 

Flight by Conrad Roland  1944  Image Courtesy of the Reading Public Museum

Artistically, Roland liked to work in pastel, crayon and watercolor. His paintings show technical strength and a ‘mastery of the medium.’ He painted both from life and birds that had been mounted. Several of his mounted birds were donated to Muhlenberg College.

Whippoorwill by Conrad Roland    Image Courtesy of the Reading Public Museum

Snow Covered by Conrad Roland

Toucan by Conrad Roland

Bird by Conrad Roland

Black Throated Warbler by Conrad Roland  Image Courtesy of the Reading Public Museum

We had considerable difficulty assembling this biography of Conrad. He has no Wikipedia page, which is an unfortunate oversight. It would make a nice project for a motivated person.  His paintings occasionally come up for auction and command prices ranging from $100- $1000.