Arts and Letters

Henry Varnum Poor was born in Chapman, Kansas, in 1888. In 1910 he graduated from Stanford University, following which he studied at the State School in London and in Paris at the Académie Julian.

Henry Poor was a man of great stature and quiet strength. Not only was he a fine and distinguished painter, he was also an accomplished artist and craftsman in other areas. During the Roosevelt administration he painted twelve murals in fresco for the Department of Justice building in Washington and a large mural titled "Conservation of American Wild Life" for the Department of the Interior.

His pioneering work in ceramics in the 1920s influenced a whole generation of potters, and his later writing on the subject is held in high esteem by members of that craft. Also in the early 1920s he designed and built, from stone he himself quarried, his own fine house, and later a number of others, including those of his friends Maxwell Anderson and Burgess Meredith.

Henry Poor's influence as a teacher was widely felt—he taught for a time at Columbia University and in 1950 he was Artist in Residence at the American Academy in Rome. He was one of the founders of the California School of Fine Arts, and a founder and President of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, a school of great distinction that over the years has involved some of our finest painters.

Aside from his many accomplishments Henry Poor was a wonderful, warm person and will be so remembered by his many friends, colleagues, and students.