Henry Varnum Poor (designer)
Henry Varnum Poor | |
---|---|
Born | Chapman, Kansas, U.S. | September 30, 1887
Died | December 8, 1970 Slade School, Académie Julian | (aged 83)
Alma mater | Stanford University |
Occupation(s) | architect, painter, sculptor, muralist, potter, professor |
Spouse(s) | Marion Dorn (1919–1923; divorce), Bessie Breuer (m. 1925–1970; death) |
Children | 3 |
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9c/Henry-Varnum-Poor-1913-The-Luncheon-canvas-36-x-481.jpg/220px-Henry-Varnum-Poor-1913-The-Luncheon-canvas-36-x-481.jpg)
Henry Varnum Poor (September 30, 1887 – December 8, 1970) was an American architect, painter, sculptor, muralist, and potter.
Biography
He was born in Chapman, Kansas on September 30, 1887,[1] to parents Alfred James Poor and Josephine Melinda Graham.
Poor attended
In the late 1920s, Poor gained recognition as a painter and eventually turned to murals; he was commissioned to paint twelve murals in the U.S. Department of Justice and the mural Conservation of American Wild Life in the Department of the Interior during the 1930s. During World War II he was head of the War Art Unit of the Corps of Engineers. He served on the
Self-taught as an architect, Poor designed the "Crow House" on South Mountain Road in New City, New York for himself, and designed houses or home renovations for Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya, John Houseman, Burgess Meredith and Maxwell Anderson.
He was also a potter, with ceramics in the permanent collections of the
He died on December 8, 1970, in New City, New York.[1]
Poor's pupils included the painter and printmaker Bertha Landers.[6]
Murals
As a muralist, Poor executed several large commissions:
- ceramic mosaic for the ceiling of the Union Dime Savings Bank, Sixth Avenue and 40th Street, NYC, 1927
- 12 mural panels for the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building, Washington, D.C., circa 1935
- Conservation of Wildlife in America mural, Department of Interior Building, Washington, D.C. 1937-38
- Grape Harvest, a ceramic tile mural for the U.S. Post Office, Fresno, California, 1941–1942
- Two murals depicting Carl Sandburg and Louis Sullivan at the Uptown Chicago Post Office, 1943
- extensive Land Grant Frescoes for the Old Main Building at Pennsylvania State University, over 1,300 square feet (120 m2) of work, between 1940 and 1948
- murals for the Louisville Courier-JournalBuilding, Louisville, Kentucky, 1948
References
- ^ from the original on 2016-03-06. Retrieved 2015-08-17.
Henry Varnum Poor, the artist, died yesterday at his home in New City, N.Y. He was 82 years old.
- ^ Schoeser, Mary (October 2008). "Dorn, Marion V." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on November 27, 2014. Retrieved October 21, 2014.
- ^ Civic Art: A Centennial History of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, 2013)
- ^ Thomas E. Luebke, ed., Civic Art: A Centennial History of the U.S. Commission of Fine Art (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, 2013): Appendix B, p. 552.
- ^ Civic Art: A Centennial History of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts
- ^ Jennings, David R. "Landers, Bertha". www.daviddikefineart.com. Archived from the original on 12 February 2018. Retrieved 5 March 2018.
External links
- "Museum in the Works Is Losing Some Content" A news story from 2009 about effort to make a museum of Poor's Crow House.
- on Poor's papers at the Smithsonian
- on Poor's Chicago Post Office murals
- "Poor's No Pauper" Illustrated article by Daniel Grant.