Jerry Farnsworth

1895-1983

Farnsworth was an American painter. Born in Dalton, Georgia, he studied at the Corcoran School of Art and with Charles W. Hawthorne.

He was a member of the National Arts Club, an Academican of the National Academy of Design, and the Salmagundi Club, all of which are located in New York City. He also belonged to the Washington Society of Art and the Provincetown Art Association.

He received six art awards from the National Academy of Design and one from the National Arts Club in 1941, one from the Los Angeles Museum of Art in 1945 and one from the Grand Central Galleries in 1928. In 1942-1943 he was the Artist-in-Residence at the University of Illinois.

Farnsworth did not always make art his profession. He worked in cotton and steel mills, dispensed soda at a drug store, and was a Fuller Brush man and a Western Union messenger boy.

Farnsworth's work may be seen at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art. He also wrote several books, including Painting with Jerry Farnsworth, Learning to Paint in Oil and Portrait and Figure Painting.

Farnsworth and his wife, painter Helen Sawyer, together ran a summer art school in North Truro, Massachusetts for many years. Their time was divided between there and Sarasota, Florida, where he was the director of the Farnsworth School of Art.