Thorne-Sagendorph Art Gallery

at Keene State College

Keene, NH

(603) 358-2720

Meryman Portraits of Sagendorphs Donated

Two portraits by Richard Summer Meryman will be on display at the Thorne-Sagendorph Art Gallery at Keene State College from Saturday, June 20, through Wednesday, August 5, 1998 during an exhibition of works by Alexander James. Both Meryman and James were members of the "Dublin School" of New Hampshire artists.

The portraits, recently donated to the gallery by Lorna Sagendorph Trowbridge of Putney, Vt., are of her father and mother, the late Robb and beaTrix Thorne Sagendorph of Dublin, N.H. Robb Sagendorph was founder and publisher of Yankee magazine. His wife, an artist, was the benefactor of the original Thorne Gallery, named after her mother, Louise Thorne of Chicago.

Born in Boston in 1882, Meryman first studied art at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts School. In 1906, the artist Abbott Handerson Thayer asked his friend William James, the philosopher and father of Alexander James, to recommend a young artist as Thayer's apprentice. Meryman received the position.

Primarily a portraitist as a student in Boston, Meryman became interested in landscape and nature studies while under Thayer's tutelage. During World War I, Meryman joined the Camouflage Corps, a group of artists organized to create protective coloration for troops in Europe. After his discharge he joined the faculty of the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C., where he stayed until 1935. He then settled in Dublin permanently, for several years running a summer art school with his friend Alexander James. He died in Dublin in 1963.

Exhibit hours are noon to 4 p.m., Saturday through Wednesday. For more information, call the Thorne at 603-358-2720.

This page was originally published 8/5/98 in Resource Library Magazine. Please see Resource Library's Overview section for more information. rev. 11/28/11

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