American Monotypes from the Baker/Pisano Collection | Page 36

Jerry Farnsworth (American, 1895–1983)
Landscape, n.d.

Mixed media monotype, 7 1/2 x 7 1/2 in.
Collection of The Heckscher Museum, Huntington, New York.
Gift of the Baker/Pisano Collection, 2001.9.102

His work now nearly forgotten, Jerry Farnsworth was at one
time a prominent member of the American art community.
He studied at the Corcoran School of Art and with Charles
W. Hawthorne at the Cape Cod School of Art in Provincetown, Massachusetts. He was a member of the National Arts
Club and served as the artist-in-residence at the University of
Illinois from 1942 to 1943. His specialty was portrait painting.
Farnsworth painted President Truman’s portrait, produced
nine cover illustrations for Time magazine, and wrote several
books on painting. He and his wife, Helen Sawyer, founded the
Farnsworth School of Art in Truro, Massachusetts, in 1933.
Throughout his career he worked in monotype—it likely served
as a liberating art form in contrast to the more controlled work
of portraiture.
NOTES:
Lowrey, Legacy of Art, 90–93.
Whalen, Truro, 192.

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