Herbert Barnett Nude Paintings

Signed lower right: “Herbert Barnett”. Published: Art Digest, November, 1939. Exhibited: Marie Harriman Gallery, New York, 1939. The Institute of Contemporary Art, “Art of New England”, 1939. Contemporary Arts, Inc., New York, November, 1939. Herbert Barnett was an American artist whose life and work was closely tied to New England, and yet, his distinctive style of painting draws upon both the American tradition of representation and the artistic innovations of the Cubists. He is known as a painter of extraordinary ability and a virtuoso draftsman. Born in Cranston, Rhode Island, Barnett grew up in Providence. While still in high school, he began to study painting at the Rhode Island School of Design. From 1927-31, he studied at the Boston Museum School and soon acquired a reputation for technical proficiency. At seventeen, he had his first one-man show at the Grace Horne Gallery in Boston and was already teaching private classes. After art school, where he won the Paige Travelling Fellowship, Barnett spent three years traveling and studying in Europe. In the late 1930s, Barnett's bold and expressive figure paintings and Cape Ann landscapes...