202

Henry Varnum Poor

(1887-1970)

Still Life.

Oil on panel, 1962.
Signed and dated in oil at lower right.
15 x 21 in. (38.1 x 53.3 cm.)
Frame: 24 x 30 in. (61 x 76.2 cm.)

  • Provenance:
    Nathan Altman, NY.
    Thence by descent to the current owner.

    Other notes:
    Poor (1887-1970) was born in Kansas and attended Stanford University. Despite opposition from his family, after graduation he went to London and studied with the artist Walter Sickert at the Slade School and then in Paris at the Académie Julian. He returned to California in the early 1910s and taught art at Stanford before his service in the U.S. Army during World War I. After the war, Poor moved to New York and struggled to make a living as an artist during the Great Depression (he worked as a muralist in the WPA and later as an illustrator). While continuing to pursue his painting career, he also became a talented ceramicist and sculptor. Though reluctant to pursue teaching during the 1920s/1930s, Poor ultimately returned to his roots as an instructor and in 1946 co-founded the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Skowhegan, Maine.
  • Condition:
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January 29, 2026 12:00 PM EST
New York, NY, US

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