Frank William Handlen (September 26, 1916 – May 25, 2023) was an American painter, sculptor and shipwright, known for his marine-based portraits.

Biography

Born in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

in 1916, and raised in Caldwell, New Jersey, Handlen depicts ships, the sea and the Maine landscape in oil and pastels. In 1938, his mentor, marine artist Frederick Judd Waugh, encouraged him to go to Maine, "where it will all be before you". Handlen settled first in

Biddeford Pool Biddeford Pool is a large tidal pool, located off Saco Bay south of the mouth of the Saco River on the south coast of Maine. It is approximately 6 miles southeast of downtown Biddeford, to which it is connected via State Route 208. The town of Ke ...

and later in

Kennebunkport Kennebunkport is a resort town in York County, Maine, United States. The population was 3,629 people at the 2020 census. It is part of the Portland– South Portland–Biddeford metropolitan statistical area. The town center, the are ...

. As a young man, he worked in Bernie Warner's shipyard on the

Kennebunk River The Kennebunk River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed June 30, 2011 river in York County, Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern reg ...

and eventually designed and built his own forty-foot, sixteen ton topsail schooner, ''The Saltwind'', which is moored in the

behind his house, very near the site of the old shipyard. In 1994, he was commissioned to create the heroic bronze statue, ''Our Forebears of the Coast'', which stands on the

River Green. Handlen was a Fellow of The American Society of Marine Artists for 22 years. He illustrated "Seapiece The Story of a Maine Boy" by Will Beale and "The Story of Maine for Young Readers" by Melville Freeman and Estelle Hale Perry. His pastels, oil paintings and pen and ink drawings are extensively owned by private and corporate collectors including The Kennebunkport Historical Society, The Brick Store Museum, MBNA, Sears Roebuck and The St. Botolph Club in Boston. He turned 100 in September 2016, and 105 in 2021. Handlen died in

Biddeford, Maine Biddeford is a city in York County, Maine, United States. It is the principal commercial center of York County. Its population was 22,552 at the 2020 census. The twin cities of Saco and Biddeford include the resort communities of Biddeford Po ...

, on May 25, 2023, at the age of 106.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Handlen, Frank 1916 births 2023 deaths 20th-century American male artists 20th-century American painters American centenarians American male painters American marine artists Men centenarians Painters from Brooklyn People from Caldwell, New Jersey