Stephen Etnier
| Stephen Morgan Etnier | |
|---|---|
| Born |
September 11, 1903 York, Pennsylvania |
| Died | November 7, 1984 (aged 81) Harpswell, Maine |
| Nationality | American |
| Known for | Painting |
| Movement | Realism |
| Awards |
Doctor of Fine Arts, Bowdoin College & Bates College (both 1969), Samuel F. B. Morse Gold Medal (1964), Saltus Medal (1955), Altman Medal (1956), all from National Academy of Design |
Stephen Morgan Etnier (September 11, 1903 – November 7, 1984) was an American realist painter, painting for six decades. His work is distinguished by a mixture of realism and luminism, favoring industrial and working scenes, but always imbued with atmospheric light. Geographically, his career spanned the length of the eastern Atlantic and beyond.
Stephen Etnier was born in September, 1903 in York, Pennsylvania. From 1915 to 1922 he attended the Haverford and Hill schools in Pennsylvania and Roxbury Tutoring School in Connecticut. He matriculated into Yale University class of 1926, transferring to Yale Art School in December 1922. Re-entering Yale University in 1923 he was later dismissed for poor grades. He entered Haverford College in 1924 and transferred to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, where he studied for four years.
From 1925 through 1929 he studied and apprenticed under the artists Henry Breckinridge, Rockwell Kent and John Carroll.
Drawing inspiration from The Moon and Sixpence, Somerset Maugham's novel based on the life of the painter Paul Gauguin, Etnier pursued painting, launching his career with a solo exhibition at Dudensing Galleries, New York City in 1931. He soon moved to New York's Milch Gallery, where he would remain until the 1960s.
Etnier's early work of 1930s and 1940s provides a record of his life at the time. His work shows street scenes in his home state of Pennsylvania, waterfronts from his travels to Haiti and the Bahamas, (and made while sailing the Eastern Seaboard aboard his 70-foot sailboat, Morgana), aerial perspectives created as he learned to fly, and dramatic Maine landscapes, painted while he renovated a stately 1862 home, "Gilbert Head".
Gilbert Head was on Long Island, Maine at the opening of the Kennebec River and across from Fort Popham and Popham Beach. Etnier and his wife Betsy lived on the Morgana for two years while they renovated the house. Her account of these years, On Gilbert Head, was published in 1937.
...
Wikipedia