Herman Halsey

Datec. 1836

MediumWatercolor and ink on heavy wove paper

DimensionsSight: 8 1/8 × 6 in. (20.6 × 15.2 cm)

Object numberN0213.1970

Credit LineCollection of the Fenimore Art Museum. Gift of Albert Force

Photograph by Richard Walker

Label TextThis drawing of Herman Halsey dates from Henry Walton's earliest known period of portrait activity. Although Walton recorded the subject's facial features with the minute precision and skill of a competent draftsman, his earliest portraits betray an unfamiliarity with the precepts of modeling anatomical form. For example, Herman Halsey's coat, vest and trousers are all drawn in solid tones and darker strokes of color are applied to convey contour and shape; his face and hands appear flat and shallow. All of these features lack evidence of shading techniques employed by more experienced portraitists. Herman Halsey was born in 1827, the son of Silas and Elizabeth Halsey of Lodi, New York. He married Sarah Meeker on June 11,1857, and lived on a farm in Lodi where they raised two children. He died at the age of sixty-two on December 11, 1889.

Exhibition History“Henry Walton, 19th Century American Artist,” Ithaca College Museum of Art, Ithaca, NY, December 9, 1968 – January 4, 1969; Herbert F. Johnson Museum, Ithaca, NY, May 10, 1988 – June 26, 1988; Everhart Museum, Scranton, PA, July 3, 1988 – October 26, 1988; New York State Museum, Albany, NY, November 12, 1988 – January 29. 1989.
BibliographyPaul S. D'Ambrosio and Charlotte M. Emans, Folk Art's Many Faces; Portraities in the New York State Historical Association, (New York State Historical Association, Cooperstown, New York 1987), pp. 148-149, ill. 88.

Leigh Rehner, Henry Walton, 19th Century American Artist, (exh. cat. Ithaca, NY: Ithaca College Museum of Art, 1968), p. 29. ill. 23.

On View

Not on view