Paul Rickert, celebrated painter, Vietnam combat artist, and longtime Chestnut Hill notable, has died at 77

Paul Rickert, 77, of New Hope and Brooksville, Maine, celebrated and award-winning painter, Vietnam War combat artist, and longtime notable man about Chestnut Hill, died Thursday, May 25, of complications from Parkinson’s disease at Doylestown Hospital.

For more than 50 years, Mr. Rickert used mostly watercolors and oils to create nostalgic paintings of historic buildings, foggy streets, rocky beaches, and urban landscapes around Chestnut Hill, Conshohocken, the coast of Maine, and elsewhere. He embraced realism and lived in a studio near Germantown Avenue for more than three decades, where he created images of the nearby church, train stations, museum, and buildings.

He depicted Independence Hall, traffic on the Schuylkill Expressway, and a trolley chugging through the snow on Germantown Avenue. Critic Edith Newhall said in The Inquirer in 2007: “He sticks to the facts and clearly loves architecture. But he infuses his paintings with wistfulness and dignity.”

“My interest in my paintings has always been about capturing the drama and the mystery of a scene,” he said in a recent interview with princetoninfo.com. “It is the stage upon which the smallest to the grandest events in life are displayed.”

He especially liked large-scale paintings, he said, because “I am traveling through the scene, stopping at interesting spots, creating something bigger than myself.”

Mr. Rickert saw beautiful photos of Maine in a book, visited Penobscot Bay, and eventually bought a house in Brooksville in the mid-1970s. He left Chestnut Hill for New Hope in 2007, and his body of work is filled with scenes of the ocean, harbors, lighthouses, and farms.

In an essay, writer Stephen May described Mr. Rickert’s work in 2008 as an “intense study of nature and full understanding of light, shadow and form at different times of day.” He said Mr. Rickert’s best works “are unique combinations of keen observation, deeply felt emotions, and impeccable technique.”

Mr. Rickert’s work has been exhibited in museums, galleries, the Pentagon, National Constitution Center, and other venues around the country. He focused on light and shadows, and used sketches and small photos to hone in on details.

He won prizes from the Woodmere Museum, awards from the National Arts Club and American Watercolor Society, and gold medals from the Allied Artists of America and the Franklin Mint Gallery of American Art. In the 1970s, he studied with contemporary realist Nelson Shanks in New Hope.

“Paul was gentle, kind, had a great sense of humor, enduring faith, and intense commitment to his art,” said longtime friend Maria Demopoulos.

Mr. Rickert, who was drafted in 1964, qualified for the innovative Vietnam Combat Artists Program, and sketched poignant perceptions of war in Vietnam from August to December 1966. One of his well-known sketches of that period is of five local children peering over the shoulder of a U.S. military sketch artist at work.

He was “an exceptional artist whose vision has given joy to all who experience his artwork,” friends said in an online tribute.

Born in Philadelphia on June 21, 1945, Paul James Rickert grew up in Mount Airy near Carpenter’s Woods. His father, William, and grandfather were artists, too, and he and his father exhibited together in 2001 at the Hahn Gallery in Chestnut Hill.

Mr. Rickert showed artistic talent as a boy, graduated from Olney High School in 1963, and attended ArtCenter College of Design in California after his discharge from the Army. He returned to Philadelphia in the 1970s, settled in Chestnut Hill, and was seen often around town on a bicycle or setting up an easel wherever he spotted a scene.

He was a car enthusiast, avid reader, and enjoyed classical music and Bob Dylan. He was a member of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Rosemont and attended Thompson Memorial Presbyterian Church in New Hope, and the United Methodist Church in Brooksville.

In a tribute, his family said: “He was a caring, kind, intellectual, meticulous man who had a dry sense of humor and was a dear friend to many.”

Mr. Rickert is survived by a sister and other relatives. A brother died earlier.

A memorial service is to be at noon, Monday, June 26, at Thompson Memorial Presbyterian Church, 1680 Aquetong Rd., New Hope, Pa. 18938. Interment is to be at Washington Crossing National Cemetery.

Donations in his name may be made to Chestnut Hill Conservancy, 8708 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia, Pa. 19118; Thompson Memorial Presbyterian Church, 1680 Aquetong Rd., New Hope, Pa. 18938; and Brooksville United Methodist Church, P.O. Box 34, Brooksville, Maine 04617.