Samuel Halpert

Samuel Halpert (1884 in Białystok, Russian Empire, Russia – 1930 in Detroit, Michigan) was an American painter.

Early days

Halpert's family migrated to New York City in 1890. His father's preoccupation with religious devotion necessitated that Halpert sell Jewish newspapers, books and candy after school to help support the family. At the Neighborhood Guild, later called University Settlement House, he met Jacob Epstein, who gave him his first instruction in drawing. Halpert studied with Henry McBride (art critic), Henry McBride at The Educational Alliance from around 1898 to 1902. Beginning in 1899, the young artist also attended the National Academy of Design for three years, and left for France in 1902.

Travel in Europe

Halpert spent his first year in Paris studying under Leon Bonnat at the . However, upon seeing the work of the Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionists he left the academy to study independently and to travel. Halpert painted numerous scenes of Paris, in a style reflecting the influence of Impressionism, Cézanne, and Fauvism, the Fauves. Halpert exhibited from 1905 to 1911 at the ''Salon d'Automne'' and established strong friendships with the artists Patrick Henry Bruce, Sonia Delaunay and Robert Delaunay, Abel Warshawsky, Thomas Hart Benton (painter), Thomas Hart Benton, Fernand Léger and Jean Metzinger.

New York City and his first show

In 1912, Halpert returned to New York. He and Man Ray studied under Robert Henri at the Ferrer Center and, in 1913, Halpert left to set up an artists' community in Ridgefield, New Jersey. Other frequenters of the colony were the writer Alfred Kreymborg and the sculptor Adolf Wolff. The next year, his first one-man show was held at the Daniel Gallery. In 1915, Halpert returned to Europe and traveled to France, Spain, London and Portugal (Vila do Conde) with the Delaunays, whose abstract art, abstract work had little influence on him.

Career

Halpert returned to New York in 1916, and during the next two years exhibited in several People's Art Guild shows. Through the Guild, he met Edith Halpert, Edith Gregor Fiviosioovitch (Fein) they married in 1918. Halpert joined the Society of Independent Artists in 1917, later becoming a vice president and director. The following year, Halpert also began to exhibit at the Whitney Studio Club. After his marriage, the artist began to also paint nudes, domestic scenes and landscapes, and showed a renewed interest in naturalism. For summer 1925, the couple visited Paris The following year, Edith Halpert opened the Downtown Gallery with Bea Goldsmith, the sister of the couple's close friend Leon Kroll. The gallery represented Ben Shahn, Charles Sheeler, Stuart Davis (painter), Stuart Davis and other important American modernism, American modernist artists. during the summers of 1926 and 1927, the Halpert's rented a farmhouse at Perkins Cove in Ogunquit, Maine, an artist colony established by the critic and patron Hamilton Easter Field and frequented by Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Bernard Karfiol and Marguerite Zorach, Marguerite and William Zorach, among others.

In fall 1927, Halpert separated from his wife and moved to Detroit to head the painting department at the College for Creative Studies, School of the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts. He died there three years later.Norman L Kleeblatt and Susan Chevlowe (eds), ''Painting a place in America. Jewish Artists: NY 1900-1945'', Jewish Museum NY Publishing Company with Indy Press 1991.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Halpert, Samuel
1884 births
1930 deaths
20th-century American painters
American male painters
People from Ridgefield, New Jersey
Jews from the Russian Empire
American alumni of the École des Beaux-Arts
National Academy of Design alumni
Society of Independent Artists
20th-century American male artists