biography of Harry Leslie HOFFMAN (1874-1966)

Birth place: Cressona, PA

Death place: Old Lyme, CT

Addresses: Cressona, PA, 1906; NYC, 1907-08; Old Lyme, CT, permanently, 1910-66

Profession: Landscape painter

Studied: Yale Univ. with J.F. Weir (A.B.); ASL with DuMond; Acad. Julian, Paris, with J.P. Laurens, 1903.

Exhibited: Am. Art Assoc., Paris, 1903 (first solo); PAFA, 1906-08, 1913, 1917-24; Corcoran Gal., 1907-32 (6 exhibs.); AIC; Pan-Pacific Expo, San Francisco, 1915 (gold medal); Lyme AA, 1924 (Eaton Purchase Prize); New Haven PCC, 1925 (Landscape Prize); Paris AAA, 1903.; Florence Griswold Mus., Old Lyme, CT,1988 (retrospective).

Member: ANA, 1930; SC, 1908; MacD. Club; Artists Aid Soc.; NYWCC; NAC; AWCS; Baltimore WCS; New Haven PCC; Lyme AA.

Work: Memphis, TN; Milwaukee AI; AIC; Boston City Club; NGA; Oshkosh Public Mus.; NAC; Florence Griswold Mus., Old Lyme.

Comments: He lived in Old Lyme for more than 60 years, and at his death was one of the oldest American Impressionist landscape painters. During the 1920s, he began painting scenes of underwater life, and his trips included one to Bermuda in 1929. He was one of those responsible for preserving the Florence Griswold House as a museum after her death.

Sources: WW59; WW47; exhib. cat. Florence Griswold Mus., Old Lyme, 1988; Connecticut and American Impressionism 163-64 (w/repro.); Art in Conn.: The Impressionist Years (cites birth date of 1871 and death date of 1964); Falk, Exh. Record Series.