John F. Long (1894-1984) was a carpenter and house painter by trade but known for his reverse paintings on glass. Thanks to his grandson, Dennis Stephan, his artwork and life are well-documented. Long lived his entire life in the northern Lancaster County town of Reinholds, Pa. The rural Pennsylvania German enclave in West Cocalico Township was once refered to as Reinholds Station when the rail line first came to town in the 1860s.
As a child, Long attended Vera Cruz School, a two-mile walk from his house. He married Anna Bouder on June 4, 1914, at age 20, and they raised five children at their home on Main Street.
Long was a self-trained artist, producing in excess of 1,000 paintings over the course of roughly 66 years. He specialized in reverse painting on glass, a technique that typically begins with the artist sketching a scene on paper, then reversing the direction of the image. The drawing is then placed under glass, and the scene is painted foreground first, background last.
Long made his own frames, occasionally incorporating parquetry. Parquetry is a technique of laying small pieces of wood, sometimes of different species, side-by-side to form a decorative design. He also embellished his frames with materials such as acorn caps and macaroni shells, which were often painted gold.
In an interview conducted on Oct. 22, 1978, at age 84, Long talked about how he got started doing reverse painting on glass. Antiques dealer Hattie Brunner asked him to repair a painted glass tablet on a mantle clock door. "Hattie was influential in getting him started," said Stephan. A lifelong hunter and fisherman, he enjoyed painting wildlife. He painted homesteads and local buildings, sometimes commissioned, scenes copied from postcards, and various prints, including Currier & Ives.
His early work was not dated, according to Stephan. He signed his paintings "J. F. Long." Most of his work was done in a studio on the second floor of his barn, located behind his house. The enclosed back porch on Long's house was covered floor to ceiling with his work. It is believed he started in the 1930s or ’40s as a hobby and began selling his work in the ’70s. "It was word-of-mouth marketing, and I believe Hattie ecouraged him to sell his work," said Stephan. Hattie Brunner was known to sell contemporary folk art in her shop. She sold paintings, fabric collages, and carvings by her brother-in-law, Luke Gottshall (1899-1993), and his son and daughter-in-law, Walter and June Gottshall (both age 95), among others.
John Long also made tinsel paintings, mainly of floral still-lifes, and wove splint oak baskets as well. His younger brother (by two years), Harry F. Long, worked at Eberly's Hardware Store in Reinholds during the ’50s and ’60s and also spent time painting. He painted mainly local scenes using oil-on-masonite board. Harry also did cane-chair-seating and various woodworking, including making and painting children's chairs.
In the ’70s, the late New York City dealer John Gordon made trips to Brunner's shop and bought work by Harry. It is not known whether he bought and sold John's paintings. The late Mary Snyder (1931-2011) was another well-known antiques dealer in Reinholds, who, along with Brunner, was influential in promoting Pennsylvania German folk art (both period and contemporary).
In 1981, John Long moved into his daughter's home, and a public sale was held at his house, where several hundred of his paintings sold. He died in 1984, and on Sept. 1 of that year, his estate sale was held. Approximately 500 paintings were sold. That sale took place at the Reamstown Fire Hall. Three Swamp UCC Church paintings sold for $44, $60, and $80. Two Black Horse Tavern paintings sold for $65 and $66; and two Reinholds Fire Hall paintings sold for $50 and $72.
Long often painted buildings during different seasons and time periods, such as the Ephrata Cloister Saal. He did several adaptations of the Black Horse Tavern after it was torn down in 1978. During his early childhood, the tavern had a long balcony and green shutters. He painted it again after the balcony was gone and it had been plastered/stuccoed. He lived down the road from the tavern on Main Street (Route 897) and salvaged lumber from the building to make frames for his tavern paintings.
The Reinholds Station Trinity Chapel, a few doors down the road from Long, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990. Other local buildings he painted were the hotel (still standing), the firehouse, Hattie Brunner's Antiques Shop with Heinsey's General Store, and the old schoolhouse, which still stands at the intersection of Swamp Church Road and Galen Hall Road. In the late 1920s, the building was raised off its foundation, logs were placed under the structure, and, with mule power, it was turned 180 degrees to face the opposite direction.
The captions tell more of the story of this man and artist, who left a legacy documenting the northern Lancaster County, Pa. region.
A special thanks to Dennis Stephan, artist, retired graphic designer, and former partner in Stephan & Herr Marketing and Design.
Photos courtesy of Dennis Stephan.