An artist’s eye
Adorning his Bryn Mawr apartment, Ira Shander’s art collection includes posters, prints, a 400-year-old portrait, and his own works.
Ira Shander sketches the arched windows of an historic New York hotel with a fine-pointed pen.
Next to his drafting table, “so I can look at them while I work,” hang framed Collier’s magazine covers, including a 1910 issue featuring “Spring Morning in Washington Square, N.Y.” by William Glackens, as well as covers from Fortune, Harper’s and the New Yorker by other artists.
Centered on the wall is a photo taken by Shander of Prague, “my favorite city,” he said.
Shander, an accomplished illustrator and photographer, lives and works in a two-bedroom apartment in Bryn Mawr.
With an artist’s eye for color and content, he has arranged vintage illustrations and photos as well as his own photos and drawings on the soft-white walls in every room.
Shander became fascinated with illustrations in fourth grade at Mann Elementary School in Wynnefield. On a bookshelf in the back of the classroom, he discovered a bound volume of Harper’s Weekly magazines from the early 20th century.
At 18, he began collecting copies of wood block engravings by political cartoonist Thomas Nast published by Harper’s. “I bought them for 50 cents to $1.50 from a bookstore in West Philadelphia,” he recalled.
Shander learned wood block engraving while studying at the former University of the Arts but preferred pen and ink. After graduating in 1965, he taught art in South Jersey public schools for several years.
He eventually went into sales, working for 25 years at Kody Lighting in Wayne. His dining room chandelier came from the store. For the last three years he has worked part-time at Valley Forge Flowers.
Shander also pursues his art, taking commissions for pen and ink house portraits. He has exhibited his photographs and drawings at galleries and at the annual art show at Daylesford Abbey in Paoli. He also continues to collect.
Displayed in his hallway and dining room are posters by New Yorker Edward Penfield depicting stylish young men and women at various pursuits. Critics liken Penfield’s work to that of his European contemporaries Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Alphonse Mucha.
In the late 1960s, Shander learned that Penfield’s son Walker lived in Swarthmore and arranged to visit. The son gave 15 of his father’s posters to Shander, who gave Walker one of his own drawings.
That’s just one story of good fortune the collector has experienced.
On a trip to Paris, he discovered five épinal prints — a French term for prints of a popular subject — in a bookstore. They were scenes of Napoleon victorious in battle. An ardent history buff, Shander arranged to buy the épinal prints. The bookstore proprietor insisted on shipping them to the U.S. and told Shander to send her a check for $72 after the items arrived. The works hang in his dining room.
Nearby is the oldest item in Shander’s collection, a 400-year-old portrait of a unidentified bearded man believed to be English or Spanish. Shander calls the portrait “uncle” because it was gifted to him by his aunt, Adeline Doner.
Also in the dining room are oil paintings of a duck and a still life of vegetables by 19th century French artist, Rosa Bonheur. The works were acquired at an estate sale by Shander’s deceased parents Ribby and Irv.
“My parents had a good eye,” their son said.
Shander sets the dining table with Johnson Brothers Willow Blue china to match the Temple Jar in the corner of the room. Irv purchased the jar at a secondhand store on Market St.
Also with a good eye was Shander’s sister, Carole, a public relations executive who died in 2019. The Italian dining table and chairs, three posters of Chinese women, and the Chinese painted chest in the living room belonged to Carole.
Most of Shander’s acquisitions, including two engravings by Winslow Homer from the 1860s, are from the 19th or early 20th centuries. On the living room wall, though, are five evocative paintings of women by contemporary Philadelphia artist John Aiello.
The kitchen wall of old movie photos features silver screen stars Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Joan Crawford and others.
Shander’s fine line drawings of Victorian toilets hang in the bathroom.
The artist’s collection is elegant, eclectic and sometimes just fun.
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