Jerry Farnsworth (1895–1983) was an American artist. He was born in

Dalton, Georgia Dalton is a city and the county seat of Whitfield County, Georgia, United States. It is also the principal city of the Dalton Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Murray and Whitfield counties. As of the 2010 census, the ci ...

and studied at the

Corcoran School of Art The Corcoran School of the Arts and Design (known as the Corcoran School or CSAD) is the professional art school of the George Washington University, in Washington, DC.Peggy McGloneUniversity names first director of Corcoran School of the Arts and ...

under Charles W. Hawthorne. During 1942 and 1943 he was the Artist-in-Residence at the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univer ...

. Farnsworth also worked in a soda dispensing drug store, as a Fuller Brush Man, as a

Western Union The Western Union Company is an American multinational financial services company, headquartered in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1851 as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company in Rochester, New York, the company cha ...

messenger boy, and in a

cotton mill A cotton mill is a building that houses spinning or weaving machinery for the production of yarn or cloth from cotton, an important product during the Industrial Revolution in the development of the factory system. Although some were driven b ...

and steel mill. Haile Selassie Time cover 1936

Farnsworth's awards include six from the

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 f ...

(1941), one from the National Arts Club (1941), one from the

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum). LACMA was founded in 19 ...

(1945) and one from Grand Central Galleries (1928). Farnsworth belonged to the National Arts Club, an Academician of the National Academy of Design, the Salmagundi Club, Washington Society of Art and the Provincetown Art Association. Painter Helen Alton Sawyer was his wife and they operated a summer art school in

Truro, Massachusetts Truro is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States, comprising two villages: Truro and North Truro. Located slightly more than 100 miles (160 km) by road from Boston, it is a summer vacation community just south of the no ...

. They wintered in

Sarasota, Florida Sarasota () is a city in Sarasota County on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The area is renowned for its cultural and environmental amenities, beaches, resorts, and the Sarasota School of Architecture. The city is located in the sou ...

. His work was exhibited at the

Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch language, Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appa ...

, the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

and the

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–194 ...

. He wrote ''Painting with Jerry Farnsworth'', ''Learning to Paint in Oil and Portrait'' and ''Figure Painting''. Some of his papers are collected at Syracuse University.Jerry Farnsworth
Syracuse University He married fellow artist Helen Alton Sawyer (1900-1999).Helen Alton Farnsworth, Geni
/ref>

References

External links

Oral history interview with Jerry Farnsworth and Helen Sawyer, 1972 Sept. 21
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian 1895 births 1983 deaths 20th-century American painters American male painters People from Dalton, Georgia Painters from Georgia (U.S. state) Corcoran School of the Arts and Design alumni University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty {{US-painter-1890s-stub