The Leechburg Area Museum and Historical Society will be gracing the television screen once again.
After previously filming for its show “It’s History!,” the Pennsylvania Cable Network is back for more.
“There was just so much information,” said Larry Boehm, president of the museum board.
Boehm said the museum’s first filming session in October featured so much that PCN TV didn’t get a chance to talk about local artist Peter “Charlie” Attie Besharo.
Besharo was a seemingly unnoticed painter and business man living in Leechburg until his death uncovered nearly 70 paintings.
The previously unassuming house painter is now known across the world for his works, which are displayed in the likes of The Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Minneapolis Institute of Art.
Who was Peter Besharo?
A quiet guy with a kind nature, Besharo emigrated to the United States from Syria. His family settled in Leechburg in the early 1900s when he was about 12 years old.
He was known by neighbors and others as friendly despite not being an extrovert, Boehm said.
Besharo worked at a Leechburg haberdashery and helped tailor clothing as a teen, Boehm said.
For a time, Besharo became a familiar face at mining camps along the Kiski River. He would bike between them and sell haberdashery products to the miners.
Around 1920, he opened his own tailor shop. Boehm said it remained open until the end of World War II. He said there was no public record of why Besharo left the business behind.
Not one to be idle, Besharo’s next endeavor was to start a painting business. For the remainder of his life, he painted signs and buildings around Leechburg, including what used to be St. Catherine’s Church and the town’s first Common Wealth Bank building .
“We think that’s when he really got into painting,” Boehm said.
Besharo lived the last decade of his life in a hotel that’s now National Public House restaurant on Market Street in Leechburg, Boehm said. The museum was unable to find any record of the artist owning a home.
Besharo passed away at age 61 in 1960.
Because he never married or had children, it was up to Besharo’s landlord to contact his relatives. Boehm said the relatives gave the landlord permission to clean out Besharo’s belongings and a garage he rented for storage.
Expecting to find only supplies from Besharo’s businesses, the landlord stumbled upon 69 of Besharo’s paintings.
Boehm said Besharo used household oil-based enamel paints for his creations and wasn’t picky about what he used as a canvas.
“(Besharo) used canvas, but he also used pieces of board and heavy cardboard,” Boehm said.
The landlord began making calls to connections in the art world to sell the paintings. A gallery in Chicago ended up picking them up, making Besharo yet another artist whose career took off after death.
His artwork has reached Paris, Australia and private galleries and museums throughout the country, Boehm said.
Leechburg’s painter
The people of Leechburg knew Besharo as Peter Charlie.
When he came to America, Besharo was forced to change his last name to Charlie to assimilate, Boehm said. In his 20s, Besharo petitioned the federal government to have his name legally changed back to his birth name.
“(Besharo) is considered one of the masters of self-taught art,” Boehm said.
He said he admired Besharo’s work because the man created things for himself. Boehm said he knows all of Besharo’s work is raw and authentic because he refused to show it to anyone in his lifetime.
“He symbolizes the most honest form of art,” Boehm said.
An episode about Besharo and his time in Leechburg will air on PCN TV’s “History and Culture” on Jan. 27 at 8 p.m.
Residents of Leechburg will have another opportunity to celebrate Besharo when the museum hosts a ceremony for a state-issued historic marker.
While the Leechburg Museum does not have a Besharo painting, they’re hoping to have one loaned to them by one of the museums that have his paintings for display during his historic marker ceremony.
Boehm said the board is planning to display the marker in the borough-owned parking lot next to National Public House.
Boehm said the museum board is unsure of when the marker will come in since the state is prioritizing historic markers related to America’s 250th anniversary. Boehm said there are at least 10 markers scheduled ahead of Besharo’s.
The earliest the ceremony could take place is this fall, Boehm said.