Harlan Hubbard (January 4, 1900 – January 16, 1988) was an American

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...

and writer, known for his simple lifestyle.

Early life and education

Hubbard was born in

Bellevue, Kentucky Bellevue is a home rule-class city in Campbell County, Kentucky, in the United States. It is located along the southern bank of the Ohio River. The population was 5,955 at the 2010 census. History Before Bellevue was founded, the area was used ...

. His father died when Harlan was only seven. Soon thereafter, his mother moved him to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

to be with his two older brothers who were living there at the time. One of his brothers,

Lucien Hubbard Lucien Hubbard (December 22, 1888 – December 31, 1971) was a film producer and screenwriter. Biography Hubbard is best known for producing the 1927 film ''Wings (1927 film), Wings'', for which he received the first Academy Award for Best Pic ...

(1888-1971), became a Hollywood screenwriter. Hubbard attended Childs High School in the

Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

and received his art education from New York's

National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the fin ...

and the

Art Academy of Cincinnati The Art Academy of Cincinnati is a private college of art and design in Cincinnati, Ohio, accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design. It was founded as the McMicken School of Design in 1869, and was a department of the U ...

. In 1919, he returned with his mother to

northern Kentucky Northern Kentucky is the third-largest metropolitan area in the U.S. Commonwealth of Kentucky after Louisville and Lexington, and its cities and towns serve as the de facto "south side" communities of Cincinnati, Ohio. The three main counties ...

and settled in

Fort Thomas, Kentucky Fort Thomas is a home rule-class city in Campbell County, Kentucky, United States, on the southern bank of the Ohio River and the site of an 1890 US Army post. The population was 16,325 at the 2010 census, making it the largest city in Campb ...

Simple living at Payne Hollow

As a young man, Hubbard saw the industrial development in America as a threat to the natural world and he came to reject consumer culture. In 1929 he started keeping a journal into which he poured his thoughts on society. In 1943, he married Anna Eikenhout. The following year they built a

shantyboat A houseboat is a boat that has been designed or modified to be used primarily as a home. Most houseboats are not motorized as they are usually moored or kept stationary at a fixed point, and often tethered to land to provide utilities. ...

at Brent, Kentucky and traveled down the

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

and

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

rivers, ending their journey in the

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

bayous in 1951. His book ''Shantyboat'' recounts the eight-year journey from Brent to

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

. His book ''Shantyboat in the Bayous'', which was published in 1990, completes the story. In 1951, Harlan and Anna built a simple home at Payne Hollow on the shore of the Ohio River in

Trimble County, Kentucky Trimble County is a county located in the north central part of the U.S. state of Kentucky. Its county seat is Bedford. The county was founded in 1837 and is named for Robert Trimble. Trimble is no longer a prohibition or dry county. Trimble Co ...

. It was there that the Hubbards lived lives that have been described as simultaneously frugal and abundant. Hubbard published two books on their lifestyle: ''Payne Hollow'' and ''Journals, 1929-1944''. Author

Wendell Berry Wendell Erdman Berry (born August 5, 1934) is an American novelist, poet, essayist, environmental activist, cultural critic, and farmer. Closely identified with rural Kentucky, Berry developed many of his agrarian themes in the early essays of ...

was a close friend of Hubbard's who wrote and lectured on the Hubbards' lives. Hubbard's wife Anna died on May 3, 1986. Hubbard himself died two years later at the age of 88.

Artistic legacy

Hubbard's art was largely pastoral, including oils, watercolors, and woodblock printing. Th
Behringer-Crawford Museum
in

Covington, Kentucky Covington is a list of cities in Kentucky, home rule-class city in Kenton County, Kentucky, Kenton County, Kentucky, United States, located at the confluence of the Ohio River, Ohio and Licking River (Kentucky), Licking Rivers. Cincinnati, Ohio, ...

and the Frankfort Community Public Library ( Frankfort, Indiana) have significant collections of his work. Hubbard bequeathed Payne Hollow to his friend and fellow artist Paul Hassfurder. Hassfurder began living in Payne Hollow in 1989.

Works

* ''Shantyboat'' (New York: Dodd, Mead), 1953. epublished as ''Shantyboat: A River Way of Life'' (Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky), 1977. * ''Payne Hollow: Life on the Fringe of Society'' (New York: Eakins Press), 1974. epublished as a "new edition" in 1997 by Gnomon Press, * "Payne Hollow" in ''Kentucky Renaissance: An Anthology of Contemporary Writing'', Jonathan Greene, ed. (Lexington, KY: Gnomon Press), 1976. * ''Harlan Hubbard Journals, 1929-1944'' (Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky), 1987. * ''Oyo: An Ohio River Anthology'' (with Don Wallis) (Yellow Springs, OH: Oyo Press), 1987. * ''Shantyboat on the Bayous'' (Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky), 1990. * ''Shantyboat Journal'' (Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky), 1994. * ''The Woodcuts of Harlan Hubbard: From the Collection of Bill Caddell'' (Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky), 1994. * ''Payne Hollow Journal'' (Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky), 1996. * ''A Visit with Harlan Hubbard'' (with Wade H. Hall) (Lexington, KY: University of Kentucky Libraries), 1996. * ''Sonata at Payne Hollow: A Play'' (with Wendell Berry) (Monterey, KY: Larkspur Press), 2001.

Notes

References

* Berry, Wendell. ''Harlan Hubbard: Life and Work'' (Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky), 1990. * Hassfurder, Paul. "Payne Hollow Today", HarlanHubbard.com, August 1997. * "Harlan Hubbard" in ''The Kentucky Encyclopedia'' John E. Kleber (ed.) (Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky), 1992. * Morgan, John, Mark Bauer and David Payne. "Life on the Fringe of Society" (1981). Videorecording produced by Northern Kentucky University and Kentucky Educational Television of a Public Broadcasting System program detailing the life of Hubbard. * Ross, Donna, Ellen Ballard, Gale Worth, Otis Ballard and Dave Shuffett. "Kentucky Life: Harlan Hubbard, 1900-1988" (2002). Number 814 from the title series produced by Kentucky Educational Television detailing the Hubbards' lives. * Wallis, Don. ''Harlan Hubbard and the River: A Visionary Life'' (Yellow Springs, OH: OYO Press), 1989.

External links

Harlan Hubbard: "Life on the fringe of society"
by Donald L. Ward, RoundAbout Madison.

at the

University of Louisville The University of Louisville (UofL) is a public research university in Louisville, Kentucky. It is part of the Kentucky state university system. When founded in 1798, it was the first city-owned public university in the United States and one of ...

Archives and Special Collections
Anna and Harlan Hubbard School of Living, Frankfort Community Public Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hubbard, Harlan 1900 births 20th-century American painters American male painters Writers from Kentucky 1988 deaths Painters from Kentucky People from Bellevue, Kentucky People from Fort Thomas, Kentucky Simple living advocates 20th-century American essayists 20th-century American printmakers 20th-century American male artists