# List of Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts people

This is a list of people from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA), a private art school founded in 1805, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It is the oldest school of this type in the United States. Although it ceased to offer a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in the 2024–2025 academic year, the certificate programs and other instruction continue. This list includes notable alumni, faculty, honorary degree awardees, PAFA founders, school directors, and school presidents.

## Notable alumni
### Architects and designers

* Thomas Harlan Ellett (1890–1951) architect
* Elise Mercur (1864–1947) architect

### Cartoonists and illustrators

* Cornelia Barns (1888–1941), illustrator, political cartoonist, painter, feminist, and socialist
* Al Capp (1909–1979) cartoonist, only attended briefly
* A. B. Frost (1851–1928), illustrator, graphic artist, painter, cartoonist
* William Glackens (1870–1938) illustrator
* Frances Tipton Hunter (1896–1957) illustrator
* Maria Louise Kirk (1860–1938) illustrator, painter
* Dorothy Pulis Lathrop (1891–1980), writer, illustrator of children's books
* Don Martin (1931–2000; class of 1952) cartoonist
* Katherine Milhous (1894–1977) graphic artist, illustrator, writer
* Violet Oakley (1874–1961; class of 1896) teacher, illustrator, muralist, writer

### Painters

* Thomas Pollock Anshutz (1851–1912), painter, educator
* Elizabeth Gowdy Baker (1860–1927), portrait painter
* Bo Bartlett (born 1955; class of 1980), realist painter
* Walter Emerson Baum (1884–1956; attended 1905 to 1906), painter, founder of the Baum School of Art and the Allentown Art Museum
* Cecilia Beaux (1855–1942), impressionist portrait artist
* Hugh Henry Breckenridge (1870–1937; attended in the 1890s), painter, teacher
* Arthur Beecher Carles (1882–1952; class of 1907) modernist painter
* Mary Cassatt (1844–1926) painter, printmaker
* Jonathan Lyndon Chase (born 1989; MFA 2016) painter
* Margaret Covey Chisholm (1909–1965) portrait painter, muralist
* Colin Campbell Cooper (1856–1937) architectural painter
* John Rogers Cox (1915–1990) Magic realism painter
* Ralston Crawford (1906–1978) painter, photographer, printmaker, teacher
* Jack Delano (1914–1997) Ukrainian-born Puerto Rican photographer, composer, filmmaker
* Vincent Desiderio (born 1955) realist painter
* Thomas Eakins (1844–1916; class of 1861), realist painter, photographer, sculptor, and educator
* Stephen Etnier (1903–1984), realist painter
* Virginia B. Evans (1894–1983) painter, glass designer, teacher
* Katherine Levin Farrell (1857–1951) painter, printmaker
* Louise Fishman (1939–2021) feminist abstract painter
* Charles Lewis Fussell (1840–1909), landscape painter
* Daniel Garber (1880–1958; class of 1917), Impressionist landscape painter
* William W. Gilchrist Jr. (1879–1926) impressionist painter
* William Glackens (1870–1938) realist painter, Ashcan school
* Marie Bruner Haines (1885–1979) painter, muralist, illustrator, teacher
* James Havard (1937–2020) painter, sculptor
* A. G. Heaton (1844–1930) painter, author and numismatist
* Isabelle Bowen Henderson (1899–1969) portraitist and floriculturist
* Barkley L. Hendricks (1945–2017; class of 1967) painter
* Robert Henri (1865–1929) Ashcan school painter, teacher
* Edward Lamson Henry (1841–1919) genre painter
* Elsa Jemne (1887–1974), landscape painter, portraitist, muralist and illustrator
* Lucius Kutchin (1901–1936) portrait painter
* Christine Lafuente (born 1968) painter
* Sara Larkin (1946–2018) painter
* Frank B. A. Linton (1871–1943), portrait-painter and teacher; attended 1885 to 1886
* Adelia Armstrong Lutz (1859–1931), painter
* John Marin (1870–1953) modernist painter, watercolorist; attended from 1899 to 1901
* Donald Martiny (born 1953), action painter
* Abram Molarsky (1880–1955) Russian Empire–born American impressionist painter
* Edward Percy Moran (1862–1935) painter
* Oliver William Nuse (born 1914) landscape painter
* Elizabeth Osborne (born 1936) painter, teacher
* Maxfield Parrish (1870–1966; attended in the 1890s) illustrator, painter
* Francis Petrus Paulus (1862–1933) painter, printmaker
* Clara Elsene Peck (1883–1968), illustrator, painter
* Jane Piper (1916–1991), painter
* Frank Knox Morton Rehn (1848–1914), marine painter
* Jacques Reich (1852–1923), Hungarian-born portrait etcher
* Seymour Remenick (1923–1999), painter, teacher; taught from 1977 to 1996
* Constance Coleman Richardson (1905–2002; class of 1928) painter
* Edgar Preston Richardson (1902–1985; attended in the 1920s) painter, art historian, museum director, author, and curator
* William Sartain (1843–1924) Orientalist painter
* Leopold Seyffert (1887–1956) portrait painter
* Everett Shinn (1876–1953) painter, of the Ashcan school
* John Sloan (1871–1951) painter, one founder of the Ashcan school
* Louis B. Sloan (1932–2008; class of 1957) plein-air painter; first Black full professor at PAFA
* Owen Staples (1866–1949), English-born Canadian painter, printmaker, illustrator, cartoonist, and writer
* LeConte Stewart (1891–1990), LDS landscape painter, printmaker
* Frank Wilbert Stokes (1858–1955), sketch artist and painter
* Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859–1937) early Black painter to gain international acclaims
* Ellen Powell Tiberino (1937–1992) Black figurative and expressionist painter
* William B. T. Trego (1858–1909), military painter
* Orlando Gray Wales (1865–1933), landscape painter and Pennsylvania impressionist
* Philip Fishbourne Wharton (1841–1880), watercolorist, oil painter
* Charles Morris Young (attended in the 1880s), landscape painter
* Samuel P. Ziegler (class of 1913), printmaker, painter, musician, and educator

### Printmakers

* Blanche Dillaye (1851–1931) printmaker, illustrator, part of the etching revival movement; attended 1877 to 1882
* Katja Oxman (born 1942; BFA 1965) German-born American realism printmaker
* Emily Sartain (1841–1927) painter, printmaker

### Sculptors

* Alexander Stirling Calder (1870–1945) sculptor
* Wharton Esherick (1887–1970) sculptor, woodworker, painter, printmaker
* Frank Gasparro (attended 1930s), Chief Engraver of the United States Mint
* Charles Grafly (1862–1929) sculptor of portrait busts, known for stone work
* Walker Hancock (1901–1998) sculptor, teacher; taught from from 1929 to 1967
* Paul Manship (1885–1966) Art Deco sculptor; attended 1907
* James Metcalf (1925–2012) sculptor, led a community for copper artisans in Santa Clara del Cobre, Michoacán, Mexico
* Louise Pershing (1904–1986), sculptor, painter
* Albin Polasek (1879–1965) Czech-born sculptor, teacher
* Lawrence Saint (1885–1961) stained glass artist, worked on the Washington National Cathedral
* David Sherman (1944–2022), sculptor, war novelist, United States Marine Corps veteran

### Others

* David Em (born 1952) pioneering digital artist
* William Weeks Hall (1894–1958), photographer, art critic
* David Lynch (1946–2025), filmmaker; attended in 1966
* Michael H. Shamberg (1952–2014) music video producer, filmmaker
* Alumni of PAFA
* Alexander Stirling Calder
* Elise Mercur
* Frank Knox Morton Rehn
* Emily Sartain
* Henry Ossawa Tanner

## Honorary degrees

* Linda Lee Alter (honorary PhD 2013), art collector
* Benjamin West (1738–1820; honorary degree 1805) British American painter, first honorary member of the Pennsylvania Academy in 1805

## Notable faculty
### Painting

* Thomas Pollock Anshutz (1851–1912), painter, educator; taught from c. 1876 to 1912
* Will Barnet (1911–2012), painter of human figure and animals
* Cecilia Beaux (1855–1942), impressionist portrait artist, first woman to teach art at PAFA, from 1895 to 1915
* Hugh Henry Breckenridge (1870–1937; attended in the 1890s), painter, taught from 1894 to 1934
* William Merritt Chase (1849–1916), painter, taught from 1896 to 1909
* Thomas Eakins (1844–1916), realist painter, photographer, sculptor, and educator
* Thomas Hovenden (1840–1895), Irish realist painter and teacher
* Henry Bainbridge McCarter (1864–1942) illustrator, and painter; the first PAFA instructor of illustration, taught from 1902 to 1942
* Roy Cleveland Nuse (1885–1975) painter, teacher, taught from 1915 to 1944
* Violet Oakley (1874–1961; class of 1896) teacher, illustrator, muralist, writer; taught from 1912 to 1917
* Elizabeth Osborne (born 1936) painter, teacher
* Seymour Remenick (1923–1999), painter, teacher; taught from 1977 to 1996
* Christian Schussele (1824–1879), portrait painter, taught from 1868 to 1879
* Louis B. Sloan (1932–2008; class of 1957) plein-air painter; first Black full professor at PAFA, taught from 1963 to 1997

### Printmaking

* Martha Zelt, printmaker; taught from 1968 to 1982

### Sculpture

* Charles Grafly (1862–1929) sculptor of portrait busts, known for stone work
* Walker Hancock (1901–1998) sculptor, teacher; taught from 1929 to 1967
* Anthony Visco (born 1948), sculptor
* Faculty of PAFA
* Thomas Pollock Anshutz
* Cecilia Beaux
* Hugh Henry Breckenridge
* William Merritt Chase
* John Henry Twachtman

## List of PAFA founders

* Charles Willson Peale (1741–1827), painter, military officer, scientist, naturalist, founder of PAFA in 1805
* Rembrandt Peale (1778–1860) painter, founder of PAFA in 1805
* William Rush (1756–1833) sculptor, founder of PAFA in 1805

## List of directors and presidents
### Directors

* John Neagle, director, 1830 to 1831
* Peter F. Rothermel, director, 1847 to 1855
* Fairman Rogers, director, 1878 to 1883
* Charles Henry Hart, director, 1882 to 1902
* Harrison S. Morris, director, 1882 to 1905
* George Dunton Widener
* Thomas N. Armstrong III, director, 1971 to 1974
* John Heman Converse

### Presidents

* Henry D. Gilpin, president, 1852 to 1859
* Edward Hornor Coates, president, 1890 to 1906
* Edward T. Lewis, president, 2007 to 2009
* David R. Brigham, president, 2010 to 2020
* Eric Pryor, president, 2022 to present; the first Black president