Charles Rosen (28 April 1878 – 21 June 1950) was an American painter who lived for many years in Woodstock, New York.

Charles Rosen was born on a farm in Reagantown, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania on 28 April 1878.

[1] His early work was often compared to Edward Willis Redfield, the leader of the group of impressionist artists at New Hope.

[3] The others in this group were Rae Sloan Bredin, Morgan Colt, Daniel Garber, William Langson Lathrop and Robert Spencer.

By 1920 Rosen had adopted a cubist-realist style (later identified as Precisionism) that characterized his work for the remainder of his life.

[8] In 1922 Rosen, Henry Lee McFee and Andrew Dasburg founded the Woodstock School of Painting.

[6] During the Great Depression the government commissioned Rosen to paint a series of murals in post offices.

[1] Rosen's impressionist winter landscapes of Pennsylvania and the coast of Maine, with forceful designs and bold, deeply layered brushwork, are thought by some to be his best work.

[10] According to John Folinsbee, "Rosen was considering form in relation to warm and cool colors, lost and found edges, all of which contributed to intensify the illusion of space on flat canvas.

[5] However, another critic says that Rosen's bleak views of shabby buildings were hard to distinguish from the work of Bellows and Speicher.

Brian H. Peterson, Senior Curator of this museum, wrote a book on the artist entitled Form Radiating Life: the Paintings of Charles Rosen (2006).