Henry Varnum Poor (1887 – 1970) American Designer & Artist

Henry Varnum Poor was an American architect, painter, sculptor, muralist, potter, and architect (1887–1970). He was the grandnephew of Henry Varnum Poor, a founding member of the company that became Standard & Poors.

Early Years

On September 30, 1887, he was born in Chapman, Kansas, to Alfred James Poor and Josephine Melinda Graham.

Poor studied at Stanford University and earned an A.B. there in 1910. He received painting instruction from painter Walter Sickert at the Slade School in London before enrolling at the Académie Julian in Paris. He moved to San Francisco to teach at the San Francisco Art Association after his return to the country in 1911, where he first taught art at Stanford University.

Personal Life

Marion Dorn, a former Stanford University student who became a well-known textile designer, and Poor were married from July 1919 to October 1923. He settled in Rockland County, New York, after serving in the military during World War I, where he concentrated on ceramics. He married author and journalist Bessie Breuer in 1925.

Muralist

Poor began to specialise in murals as his reputation as a painter grew in the late 1920s and early 1930s. He was hired to create 12 murals for the U.S. Department of Justice and the Conservation of American Wild Life mural for the Department of the Interior. He oversaw the Corps of Engineers War Art Unit during World War II. From 1944 to 1945, he was a member of the US Commission of Fine Arts.

Poor taught at Columbia University and was one of the founders of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 1946. Poor was a resident fellow in visual arts at the American Academy in Rome from 1950 to 1951. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Self-taught Architect

As a self-taught architect, Poor created the “Crow House” on South Mountain Road in New York City for himself, Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya, John Houseman, Burgess Meredith, and Maxwell Anderson. He also designed homes for himself. He was also a potter, and his ceramics can be found in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago, as well as ceramics created specifically for Radio City Music Hall. The Whitney Museum and the Phillips Collection have their pieces in their collections. The Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art is where you can find Poor’s papers.

Sources

Henry Varnum Poor (designer) – Wikipedia. (2015, August 17). Henry Varnum Poor (Designer) – Wikipedia. Retrieved December 31, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Varnum_Poor_(designer)

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