Henry Strater | |
---|---|
Born | January 21, 1896 Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. |
Died | December 21, 1987 Palm Beach, Florida, U.S. | (aged 91)
Other names | Mike Strater |
Education | Princeton University, Art Students League of New York, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Académie de la Grande Chaumière |
Occupation(s) | Painter, illustrator |
Henry "Mike" Strater (1896–1987) was an American painter and illustrator. He was a friend of Ernest Hemingway and other figures of the Lost Generation.[1] He was best known for his portraiture, figurative, and landscape drawings and paintings.[2] Strater founded the Ogunquit Museum of American Art in Ogunquit, Maine in either 1952 or 1953.[3][4][5]
Henry Strater was born on January 21, 1896, in Louisville, Kentucky. He later attended Princeton University,[1] during which he befriended F. Scott Fitzgerald.[1] Strater was Fitzgerald's inspiration for the character "Burne Halliday" from the novel This Side of Paradise (1920).[1]
During 1917 and World War I, Strater enlisted in the French Red Cross and drove ambulances for the Allies.[6] In 1919 he returned to the United States to studied at the Art Students League of New York and Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.[7] He also took some classes at Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid.[7]
In the 1920s, Strater studied at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in the Montparnasse district of Paris, under Edouard Vuillard.[1] While in Paris, Strater met Hemingway in a bar, where they had a brawl.[1] Later they became friends and Strater painted two portraits of Hemingway in late 1922 while still in Paris.[1][8][6]
Ezra Pound had Strater illustrate part of the book, The Cantos.[6]
His friendship with Hemingway ended in 1935, over a Time magazine photo of Marlin fishing that incorrectly credited Hemingway with catching Strater's oversized fish.[9] Hemingway did not correct the issue.[citation needed]
In either 1952 or 1953, Strater founded the Ogunquit Museum of American Art in Ogunquit, Maine.[4][5]
He died at the age of 91 on December 21, 1987, in Palm Beach.[1] He is buried at the First Parish Cemetery in York, Maine.[citation needed]
Strater's work can be found in museums including the Chrysler Museum of Art,[9] Harvard Art Museums,[10] the Art Institute of Chicago, the Detroit Institute of Arts,[11] and the Princeton University Art Museum.[12]