Durr Freedley (also known as Durr Friedley) was a portrait painter and muralist who enjoyed a noted but brief career in

Newport, Rhode Island Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, ...

before his death in an automobile accident. He is perhaps best known for his mural on the interior of the Memorial Chapel of the

Seamen's Church Institute of Newport The Seamen's Church Institute is a social service organization and historic building located in Newport, Rhode Island. Founded in 1919, the Institute's mission is to provide men and women of the sea and persons referred from the community a safe ...

Personal life

The artist was born as Jesse Jacob Friedley in Indianapolis, Indiana. He earned his degree in Fine Arts from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in 1911. During his time at Harvard, Freedley was editor of the

Harvard Lampoon ''The Harvard Lampoon'' is an undergraduate humor publication founded in 1876 by seven undergraduates at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Overview The ''Harvard Lampoon'' publication was founded in 1876 by seven undergraduates ...

. At some point after 1918 and before 1932, Friedley changed the spelling of his surname to Freedley. Freedley, who was homosexual, never married or had children.

Early career

Freedley was a staff member at the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

between 1911 and 1917. His positions included Assistant Curator and Acting Curator. In 1917 Freedley was offered the post of curator when

Wilhelm Valentiner William Reinhold Valentiner (May 2, 1880 – September 6, 1958) was a German-American art historian, art critic and museum administrator. He was educated and trained in Europe, first working at the Mauritshuis in The Hague and at museums in Berli ...

resigned to join the German Army; he declined, and spent World War I painting camouflage on war planes.

Paris

After the war Freedley moved to Paris, where he set up a portrait studio and socialized with artists and writers including

Man Ray Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitzky; August 27, 1890 – November 18, 1976) was an American visual artist who spent most of his career in Paris. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealism, Surrealist movements, although his t ...

Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the Allegheny West neighborhood and raised in Oakland, California, Stein moved to Paris ...

and

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century fic ...

. Among his works in Paris were drawings and paintings of performers at the famous ''

La Revue Negre LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States. La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * La (musical note), or A, the sixth note * "L.A.", a song by Elliott Smith on ''Figur ...

''.

Newport

Freedley was invited by socialite Mrs Hamilton Fish Webster to come to Newport in 1932. She offered him the opportunity to design and paint the interior of the Memorial Chapel of the

, and continued to be a patron of his career. Freedley remained in Newport until the end of his life, painting portraits of Newport socialites such as

Maud Howe Elliott Maud Howe Elliott (November 9, 1854 – March 19, 1948) was an American novelist, most notable for her Pulitzer prize-winning collaboration with her sisters, Laura E. Richards and Florence Hall, on their mother's biography ''The Life of Julia W ...

. During this time, Freedley is known to have traveled to Mississippi to paint portraits of black sharecroppers and field hands.

Death and burial

Freedley was killed at age 46 in an automobile accident on March 23, 1938, in Lexington, Massachusetts. He broke both legs and was rushed to Symmes hospital in Arlington, and died there several hours later. It is possible that Freedley was the victim of an anti-gay attack. His body was shipped to his mother in Indianapolis for burial.

Posthumous exhibitions

* Memorial exhibition at the John Herron Art Institute (now

Indianapolis Museum of Art The Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA) is an encyclopedic art museum located at Newfields, a campus that also houses Lilly House, The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park: 100 Acres, the Gardens at Newfields, the Beer Garden, and more. It i ...

, November 1–30, 1938. * Memorial exhibition at the Walker Galleries in New York City in 1939. * "Durr Freedley: Newport's Forgotten Artist," Newport Museum of Art, September 26, 2015 - January 18, 2016.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Freedley, Durr Artists from Newport, Rhode Island 1888 births 1938 deaths Painters from Rhode Island Painters from Indiana 20th-century American painters American male painters American LGBT artists LGBT people from Indiana The Harvard Lampoon alumni 20th-century American male artists