A well-known figure in Philadelphia art circles from the 1920s through the 1960s, Paulette Van Roekens enjoyed a long and successful career as a painter and teacher. An impressionist known for her love of color and her robust handling of paint, she applied her creative energies to depicting landscapes, still lifes, and urban scenes, as well as vivacious depictions of people engaged in leisure pursuits and other joyful occupations. As noted by the critic Henry C. Pitz, "She gravitates toward subjects that sparkle with pattern and bright hues—the circus, the theatre . . . the summer life of Philadelphia's parks . . . The Atlantic beach . . . She responds to the gay and alert aspects of life.1

The daughter of Victor van Roekens, a hor...