Luke Hansard (1752 - 1828)

Artist. Born in Norwich, he went to London after the expiration of his apprentiship to Stephen White, a Norwich printer. He joined the firm of John Hughs, printer to the House of Commons, who in 1774 made him a partner. In 1800 the buisness came entirely into Hansard’s hands and was renamed later as Luke […]

William Hanna (1910 - 2001)

Animation mogul. Born to William John and Avice Joyce (Denby) Hanna in Melrose, New Mexico.  He was the third of seven children and the only boy.  In 1922, while living in Watts, he joined Scouting. He attended Compton High School from 1925 through 1928, where he played the saxophone in a dance band. His passion […]

Cornelius Haley Hankins (1863 - 1946)

American Artist. Hankins was home tutored due to a case of smallpox which left him deaf till the age of eight. He studied art in Nashville under Edwin M. Gardner, in St. Louis with Robert Henri a leader of the Ashcan School and later with William Merritt Chase in New York. Hankins spent time in […]

Frederick Hammersley (1919 - 2009)

Artist. For five decades, he was a critically acclaimed painter known for his hard-edge abstraction art. He devised his work into three categories, “Hunch” are unplanned paintings that begin with a shape and continue with intuitive additions, “Geometrics” rhythmic orchestrations of geometric shapes and “Organics” are composed of curving forms. He gained national attention in […]

Vilhelm Hammershøi (1864 - 1916)

Painter. Considered one of the most distinctive painters of his era. His work is noted for its simple,  quiet subjects and subdued tones. During the late 20th century he was re-discovered internationally, and his paintings have obtained huge prices at auction houses in London and New York. In 2005 the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) made […]

Theora Alton Hamblett (1895 - 1977)

Painter.  Hamblett grew up on a farm in Lafayette County, Mississippi. She walked the mile to and from a small school in Paris in all weather. This became a big influence on her in later years, as she loved the beauty of nature. After graduating from school she became a teacher and taught in rural […]

Frans Hals (1970 - 1666)

Artist. Considered the most important Dutch portraitist of the seventeenth-century, his work influenced Edouard Manet and Vincent van Gogh. His surviving body of work includes about 300 paintings, mostly portraits and group portraits. (bio by: MC)

George Henry Hall (1825 - 1913)

Artist.  A noted painter of orientalist subjects, figure painting and still lifes. From 1849 to 1852 he studied art in Dusseldorf,  Paris, and Rome, where he opened a studio.  Upon his return to to the US he settled in New York City,  though he would later devote another 20 years to traveling.  This provided the […]

Alfred Warner Hair, Sr. (1918 - 1970)

Artist and Entrepreneur. He helped start a folk art movement known as the Highwaymen. In the segregated mid-1950s, this loosely affiliated group of black painters traveled across the state selling their Florida landscape paintings, often door-to-door. Hair and 25 members of the Highwaymen were inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame in Tallahassee. Alfred […]

Zaha Hadid (1950 - 2016)

Zaha Hadid began her studies at the American University in Beirut, Lebanon, receiving a bachelor’s degree in mathematics. In 1972 she traveled to London to study at the Architectural Association, a major centre of progressive architectural thought during the 1970s. There she met the architects Elia Zenghelis and Rem Koolhaas, with whom she would collaborate […]

George Hadfield (1763 - 1826)

Noted architect. Trained at the Royal Academy in London, he was invited by President George Washington to take charge of building the United States Capitol according to William Thornton’s design. Surviving commissions of his include the Marine Commandant’s House (1801-1803), Washington City Hall (1820), and the John Peter Van Ness Mausoleum (Oak Hill Cemetery, 1826), […]

Francis Guy (1970 - 1970)

Artist. Guy was one of America’s first landscape painters. His most famous work is the Brooklyn Snow Scene, 1820, completed shortly before his death. In it, all of Guy’s neighbors (the founding fathers of Brooklyn) are featured, giving Brooklyn a uniquely accurate historical record.

Renato Guttuso (1912 - 1987)

Artist. Sicilian born, he was an important figure on the Italian scene in mid-20th century. Among his most relevant masterpieces are included, ‘Flight from Etna’ (1938) and ‘Crucifixion’ (1940). (bio by: MC)

José Gutiérrez Solana (1886 - 1945)

Painter, Writer. He was born in Madrid, Spain. His paintings were included in Expresionism movement. He is best remembered for his work “La Tertulia del Café Pombo.” Other of his paintings “Las Vitrinas,” “El Bibliófilo,” “Mujeres de la Vida,” “El Carro de Carne,” “El Cristo de la Sangre, “Garrote Vil,” “Las Coristas,” “Mis Amigos,” “Las […]

Philip Guston (1913 - 1980)

Artist. He is remembered for his neo-expressionism in painting, abandoning the so-called “pure abstraction” of abstract expressionism in favor of more cartoonish renderings of various personal symbols and objects. He was born to Ukrainian-Jewish parents who escaped persecution when they emigrated from Odessa, Ukraine to Montreal, Canada. The family moved to Los Angeles, California when […]

Oswaldo Guayasamín (1919 - 1999)

Painter. He was born in Quito, Ecuador. In 1942, he made his first exhibition in his hometown. He is best remembered for his murals in cities such as Quito, Madrid, Paris and Sao Paulo, influenced by the painters Orozco and Picasso. His paintings were exhibited all around the world. Among others “La Época de la […]

Raphael Guastavino (1970 - 1908)

Architect. He was educated as an architect in Barcelona, graduating in 1872 from the Escuela de Arquitectura. After establishing himself as an architect he designed homes and factories for wealthy industrialist in the region of Catalin, Spain. In 1881 he came with his son to the United States settling in New York City, and by […]

Rafael Guastavino (1842 - 1908)

Builder and architect who created Grant’s Tomb, the Great Hall at Ellis Island, Grand Central Station, Carnegie Hall, and Biltmore, among many others.  (bio by: S. Donaldson)  Family links:  Children:  Rafael Guastavino Expósito (1872 – 1950)* *Calculated relationship

Isaac Grünewald (1889 - 1946)

Artist. A prolific Swedish expressionist painter, he emerged as a leader of the Swedish modernist artists from 1910 until his death. Born in Stockholm, Sweden to Jewish parents, he studied at a prominent Swedish art school as a teenager. At age 19, he moved to Paris, France to further study with artist Henri Matisse. The […]

Matthias Grunewald (1970 - 1528)

Painter. A master of the late German Gothic period, celebrated for his multi-panel Isenheim Altarpiece (1510 to 1516), with its incomparable depictions of Christ’s Crucifixion and Resurrection. Accounts of Grunewald’s  life are scanty and contradictory. From 1501 to 1521 he had a workshop in Seligenstadt; he died in Halle sometime between 1528 and 1532. Of […]

Carl A. Grubert, Jr (1911 - 1979)

Cartoonist. He was the creator of the comic strip “The Berrys”,  which ran nationally from 1942 to 1974. A 1934 graduate of the University of Wisconsin, he previously worked in advertising in Chicago before turning to writing comic strips. During World War II he served with the United States Navy.  (bio by: K)

George Grosz (1893 - 1959)

Arist. A German painter and graphic artist, he was a founding member of the German Dada Group with artists such as Max Ernst, Kurt Schwitters and Otto Dix. After studying art in Dresden and Berlin, Grosz began contributing cartoons to different newspapers. During the 1st World War he tried to commit suicide, after then he […]

Sidney Gross (1921 - 1969)

Noted Artist. His works have been in many solo exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the National Academy of Design. He is represented in the collections of the museums such as the Corcoran Gallery, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. He developed a range of styles, from realism in the 1930s, and […]

Milt Gross (1895 - 1953)

Cartoonist, Author, Animator. In his heyday he was called “America’s Great Yiddish Humorist”, famed for the inventive dialect and Jewish sensibility of his zany comic strips and books. His gift for the absurd was epitomized in the series “Banana Oil” (1923 to 1930), “Count Screwloose from Tooloose” (1929 to 1935), and “That’s My Pop!” (1935 […]

Antoine Gros (1771 - 1835)

Artist. A prolific French history and neoclassical painter, he is remembered for his battle scenes and portraits of notable European nobility and military figures. Born Antoine-Jean Gros in Paris, France, his father was a miniature painter. He displayed artistic talent at an early age and in 1785 he studied under the tutelage of French artist […]

Walter Gropius (1883 - 1969)

Architect,  Educator.  Walter Adolph Gropius was born in Berlin in 1883. He worked and taught in the United States from 1937 until 1969, becoming a naturalized citizen in 1944. Gropius was an early exponent of the international style, defined by glass curtain walls, cubic blocks, and unsupported corners. This became a landmark of modern architecture. […]

Jan Groover (1943 - 2012)

Photographer. She used her old-style camera to turn common household objects into works of art. Raised in Plainfield, New Jersey, she originally studied painting and after earning her undergraduate degree from New York’s Pratt Institute in 1965 worked as an art teacher in her hometown before receiving a Master of Fine Arts from Ohio State […]

Juan Gris (1887 - 1927)

Artist.  He was one of the outstanding figures of Cubism,  along with Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque.  Gris developed a personal interpretation of this style,  called “Synthetic Cubism”,  in which the objects of his paintings are more clearly defined and brightly colored.  He often used elements of collage in his works.  Most of them are […]

Walter Burley Griffin (1876 - 1937)

Architect. Walter Burley Griffin was an American architect and landscape architect who was influenced by the Chicago-based Prairie School.  He achieved his greatest professional and public fame and recognition for his role in designing Australia’s capital city, Canberra.  In 1911, the Australian government announced an international competition to design the new capital city, and on […]

Elmer Grey (1872 - 1963)

American Architect, Artist. Grey, who designed many noted landmarks in Southern California, is credited with being a pioneer in the development of the new American architecture in the early 20th century. Grey, who did not attend college, worked as an apprentice for a Milwaukee architectural firm from 1887 to 1899. He eventually moved to California […]