Robert Templeton (American artist)
Encyclopedia
Robert Templeton was an American
artist
. Known for his portrait of former President
Jimmy Carter
displayed in the National Portrait Gallery
's Hall of Presidents, Templeton was very prolific with many high profile portrait commissions. His work also includes the civil rights collection "Lest we forget...Images of the Black Civil Rights Movement", highlighting seminal figures from the movement.
on May 11, 1929. Due to the Wall Street crash
that year, his upbringing was difficult and the family depended on growing vegetables, supplemented by his father's wages as a WPA worker and government rice handouts. Their quality of life improved when his father was entrusted with the management of a farm in Montgomery County, Iowa
as a tenant farmer. Templeton later said that all the deprivations of his childhood toughened him rather than defeated him. He recalled how he looked forward to the arrival of The Saturday Evening Post
with the cover painting by Norman Rockwell
, which contributed to his decision to become an artist.
In between school and farming chores he filled his sketchbooks with scenes from the Iowa countryside. His sketches caught the attention of his high school principal, who encouraged him to pursue a career in art. He won a National Merit Scholarship, and his high school art teacher helped him to apply to the Kansas City Art Institute
.
in 1946 at the age of seventeen. During that year Templeton was awarded the Vanderslice scholarship. Early on Templeton was able to cover his living expenses with portrait commissions. He spent his summers in Colorado, honing his skill in portraiture on the sidewalks of Estes Park
.
In Kansas City he came under the influence of Thomas Hart Benton
, who sat for him for a portrait. Templeton had gone to the Benton home for the portrait sitting, and when the sketch was finished, Benton called in his daughter to get her reaction to the portrait. When she approved, Benton was delighted, and autographed it.
In the summer of 1949 Templeton traveled to Santa Fe, New Mexico
, to visit with the artist John French Sloan
and his wife Helen. A lifelong friendship developed from that visit, and when Templeton moved to New York to continue his studies at the Art Students League of New York
, Sunday afternoon teas and discussions about art at the Sloan home became a regular event in Templeton's life. With a letter of recommendation from John Sloan, Templeton was able to get a Ball Grant from the Art Students League two years in a row. When classes were in session, he supplemented his income by ushering at Carnegie Hall
. During summer recess he continued to hone his skill in portraiture in Estes Park, which generated enough income to last him through the school year.
for a two-year tour of duty. During basic training at Fort Leonard Wood
he painted a forty foot mural Portrait of America, which showed the influence of Thomas Hart Benton. After basic training he was sent to Germany. While still in the army, Templeton met and married his wife Leonore, and upon discharge in 1954 they settled in New York City, where he shared a studio on the Lower East Side
.
covering the Midwest
, he devoted his energy entirely to creating works with a transportation age theme. He participated both in the Mid America Annual at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
in Kansas City, and the Annual Iowa Artists Exhibition at the Des Moines Art Center
. His work focused on the effect the automobile had on the landscape, and the way we live. One of the recurring images in his work is the long distance trucker, whom he uses as the protagonist of the highly stress modern man. He experienced the life of a trucker first hand when he accompanied his brother Darwin, who owned a trucking company, on cross-country hauls. The paintings and constructions of trucks and highways were shown in 1964 at the Banfer Gallery in New York under the title L'Homme Machine (Machine Man), and posthumously in 2004 as Life on the Road in the Founders Gallery at the Golden Age of Trucking Museum in Connecticut.
, First Lady Rosalynn Carter
, Vice President Hubert Humphrey
, actor Clark Gable
, artist William Styron
, baseball player Stan Musial
, poet Carl Sandburg
, former Texas Governor John Connally
, and opera singers Luciano Pavarotti
and Joan Sutherland
.
, fighting National Guardsmen, firefighter battling the blazes, and even the mayor's press conference. His sketches of the events became the cover art for the August 4, 1967 edition of Time
magazine, the second cover he had done for the news magazine.
In 1969, Templeton was commissioned by CBS News
to be the courtroom artist for the New Haven murder trial
of Bobby Seale
, founder of the Black Panther Party
. Because the court was closed to artists and reporters, Templeton had to create his sketches secretly, and the resultant images are perhaps the only visual record that exists from the trial. Templeton was flown with his sketches to New York City, where the images were shown by Walter Cronkite
on the CBS Evening News
. In 2007, Templeton’s Black Panther trial sketches were purchased by Yale University
and exhibited at the Beinecke Library
.
After his experience in the Detroit riots, Templeton devoted more time to paint a record of the leading figures in the black civil rights movement. He felt that with the profound change in race relations, the nation owed the participants recognition for their devotion to the cause. For nearly twenty years he arranged portrait sittings with leaders in the movement, with the help and advice of Dr. Benjamin Mays
, mentor and friend of Martin Luther King, Jr.
The resulting collection of over thirty paintings were first shown at Emory University
with a grant from the Georgia Council of the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts
. The title "Lest we forget... Images of the Black Civil Rights Movement" came out of a conversation Templeton had with Dr. Mays, who expressed regret that already so many people, their work and sacrifice, were forgotten. Since its first showing in 1986 the collection has toured the country.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
. Known for his portrait of former President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
displayed in the National Portrait Gallery
National Portrait Gallery (United States)
The National Portrait Gallery is an art gallery in Washington, D.C., administered by the Smithsonian Institution. Its collections focus on images of famous individual Americans.-Building:...
's Hall of Presidents, Templeton was very prolific with many high profile portrait commissions. His work also includes the civil rights collection "Lest we forget...Images of the Black Civil Rights Movement", highlighting seminal figures from the movement.
Early life
Robert Templeton was born into a farming family in IowaIowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
on May 11, 1929. Due to the Wall Street crash
Wall Street Crash of 1929
The Wall Street Crash of 1929 , also known as the Great Crash, and the Stock Market Crash of 1929, was the most devastating stock market crash in the history of the United States, taking into consideration the full extent and duration of its fallout...
that year, his upbringing was difficult and the family depended on growing vegetables, supplemented by his father's wages as a WPA worker and government rice handouts. Their quality of life improved when his father was entrusted with the management of a farm in Montgomery County, Iowa
Montgomery County, Iowa
-2010 census:The 2010 census recorded a population of 10,740 in the county, with a population density of . There were 5,239 housing units, of which 4,558 were occupied.-2000 census:...
as a tenant farmer. Templeton later said that all the deprivations of his childhood toughened him rather than defeated him. He recalled how he looked forward to the arrival of The Saturday Evening Post
The Saturday Evening Post
The Saturday Evening Post is a bimonthly American magazine. It was published weekly under this title from 1897 until 1969, and quarterly and then bimonthly from 1971.-History:...
with the cover painting by Norman Rockwell
Norman Rockwell
Norman Percevel Rockwell was a 20th-century American painter and illustrator. His works enjoy a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of American culture. Rockwell is most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life scenarios he created for The Saturday Evening...
, which contributed to his decision to become an artist.
In between school and farming chores he filled his sketchbooks with scenes from the Iowa countryside. His sketches caught the attention of his high school principal, who encouraged him to pursue a career in art. He won a National Merit Scholarship, and his high school art teacher helped him to apply to the Kansas City Art Institute
Kansas City Art Institute
The Kansas City Art Institute is a private, independent, four-year college of fine arts and design founded in 1885 in Kansas City, Missouri....
.
Education
He was accepted and arrived in Kansas CityKansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
in 1946 at the age of seventeen. During that year Templeton was awarded the Vanderslice scholarship. Early on Templeton was able to cover his living expenses with portrait commissions. He spent his summers in Colorado, honing his skill in portraiture on the sidewalks of Estes Park
Estes Park, Colorado
Estes Park is a town in Larimer County, Colorado, United States. A popular summer resort and the location of the headquarters for Rocky Mountain National Park, Estes Park lies along the Big Thompson River. Estes Park had a population of 5,858 at the 2010 census...
.
In Kansas City he came under the influence of Thomas Hart Benton
Thomas Hart Benton (painter)
Thomas Hart Benton was an American painter and muralist. Along with Grant Wood and John Steuart Curry, he was at the forefront of the Regionalist art movement. His fluid, almost sculpted paintings showed everyday scenes of life in the United States...
, who sat for him for a portrait. Templeton had gone to the Benton home for the portrait sitting, and when the sketch was finished, Benton called in his daughter to get her reaction to the portrait. When she approved, Benton was delighted, and autographed it.
In the summer of 1949 Templeton traveled to Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...
, to visit with the artist John French Sloan
John French Sloan
John French Sloan was an American artist. As a member of The Eight, he became a leading figure in the Ashcan School of realist artists. He was known for his urban genre painting and ability to capture the essence of neighborhood life in New York City, often through his window...
and his wife Helen. A lifelong friendship developed from that visit, and when Templeton moved to New York to continue his studies at the Art Students League of New York
Art Students League of New York
The Art Students League of New York is an art school located on West 57th Street in New York City. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists, and has maintained for over 130 years a tradition of offering reasonably priced classes on a...
, Sunday afternoon teas and discussions about art at the Sloan home became a regular event in Templeton's life. With a letter of recommendation from John Sloan, Templeton was able to get a Ball Grant from the Art Students League two years in a row. When classes were in session, he supplemented his income by ushering at Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
. During summer recess he continued to hone his skill in portraiture in Estes Park, which generated enough income to last him through the school year.
Army service
In 1952 Templeton was drafted into the United States ArmyUnited States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
for a two-year tour of duty. During basic training at Fort Leonard Wood
Fort Leonard Wood (military base)
Fort Leonard Wood is a United States Army installation located in the Missouri Ozarks. The main gate is located on the southern boundary of St. Robert. The post was created in December 1940 and named in honor of General Leonard Wood, former Chief of Staff, in January 1941...
he painted a forty foot mural Portrait of America, which showed the influence of Thomas Hart Benton. After basic training he was sent to Germany. While still in the army, Templeton met and married his wife Leonore, and upon discharge in 1954 they settled in New York City, where he shared a studio on the Lower East Side
Lower East Side
The Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....
.
Trucking and highway themes
In 1963 Templeton and his wife moved back to Iowa. Inspired by the newly constructed superhighway systemInterstate Highway System
The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, , is a network of limited-access roads including freeways, highways, and expressways forming part of the National Highway System of the United States of America...
covering the Midwest
Midwestern United States
The Midwestern United States is one of the four U.S. geographic regions defined by the United States Census Bureau, providing an official definition of the American Midwest....
, he devoted his energy entirely to creating works with a transportation age theme. He participated both in the Mid America Annual at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is an art museum in Kansas City, Missouri, known for its neoclassical architecture and extensive collection of Asian art....
in Kansas City, and the Annual Iowa Artists Exhibition at the Des Moines Art Center
Des Moines Art Center
The Des Moines Art Center is an art museum with an extensive collection of paintings, sculpture, modern art and mixed media. It was established in 1948 in Des Moines, Iowa.-Description:...
. His work focused on the effect the automobile had on the landscape, and the way we live. One of the recurring images in his work is the long distance trucker, whom he uses as the protagonist of the highly stress modern man. He experienced the life of a trucker first hand when he accompanied his brother Darwin, who owned a trucking company, on cross-country hauls. The paintings and constructions of trucks and highways were shown in 1964 at the Banfer Gallery in New York under the title L'Homme Machine (Machine Man), and posthumously in 2004 as Life on the Road in the Founders Gallery at the Golden Age of Trucking Museum in Connecticut.
Connecticut
In 1965 he and his wife purchased a farm in Connecticut. The Connecticut period was filled with commissions of leaders in government, industry and entertainment, among them Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Jimmy CarterJimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
, First Lady Rosalynn Carter
Rosalynn Carter
Eleanor Rosalynn Carter is the wife of the former President of the United States Jimmy Carter and in that capacity served as the First Lady of the United States from 1977 to 1981. As First Lady and after, she has been a leading advocate for numerous causes, perhaps most prominently for mental...
, Vice President Hubert Humphrey
Hubert Humphrey
Hubert Horatio Humphrey, Jr. , served under President Lyndon B. Johnson as the 38th Vice President of the United States. Humphrey twice served as a United States Senator from Minnesota, and served as Democratic Majority Whip. He was a founder of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and...
, actor Clark Gable
Clark Gable
William Clark Gable , known as Clark Gable, was an American film actor most famous for his role as Rhett Butler in the 1939 Civil War epic film Gone with the Wind, in which he starred with Vivien Leigh...
, artist William Styron
William Styron
William Clark Styron, Jr. was an American novelist and essayist who won major literary awards for his work.For much of his career, Styron was best known for his novels, which included...
, baseball player Stan Musial
Stan Musial
Stanley Frank "Stan" Musial is a retired professional baseball player who played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball for the St. Louis Cardinals . Nicknamed "Stan the Man", Musial was a record 24-time All-Star selection , and is widely considered to be one of the greatest hitters in baseball...
, poet Carl Sandburg
Carl Sandburg
Carl Sandburg was an American writer and editor, best known for his poetry. He won three Pulitzer Prizes, two for his poetry and another for a biography of Abraham Lincoln. H. L. Mencken called Carl Sandburg "indubitably an American in every pulse-beat."-Biography:Sandburg was born in Galesburg,...
, former Texas Governor John Connally
John Connally
John Bowden Connally, Jr. , was an influential American politician, serving as the 39th governor of Texas, Secretary of the Navy under President John F. Kennedy, and as Secretary of the Treasury under President Richard M. Nixon. While he was Governor in 1963, Connally was a passenger in the car in...
, and opera singers Luciano Pavarotti
Luciano Pavarotti
right|thumb|Luciano Pavarotti performing at the opening of the Constantine Palace in [[Strelna]], 31 May 2003. The concert was part of the celebrations for the 300th anniversary of [[St...
and Joan Sutherland
Joan Sutherland
Dame Joan Alston Sutherland, OM, AC, DBE was an Australian dramatic coloratura soprano noted for her contribution to the renaissance of the bel canto repertoire from the late 1950s through to the 1980s....
.
Civil rights period
Templeton continued to add paintings to his Machine-Man series, but in 1967, he was an unwitting participant in an event which inspired him to take his art in a new direction. In the summer of 1967, Templeton was in Detroit painting private portrait commissions, when riots broke out. Templeton recorded the chaos in his sketchbook, observing lootingLooting
Looting —also referred to as sacking, plundering, despoiling, despoliation, and pillaging—is the indiscriminate taking of goods by force as part of a military or political victory, or during a catastrophe, such as during war, natural disaster, or rioting...
, fighting National Guardsmen, firefighter battling the blazes, and even the mayor's press conference. His sketches of the events became the cover art for the August 4, 1967 edition of Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine, the second cover he had done for the news magazine.
In 1969, Templeton was commissioned by CBS News
CBS News
CBS News is the news division of American television and radio network CBS. The current chairman is Jeff Fager who is also the executive producer of 60 Minutes, while the current president of CBS News is David Rhodes. CBS News' flagship program is the CBS Evening News, hosted by the network's main...
to be the courtroom artist for the New Haven murder trial
New Haven Black Panther trials
In 1970 there were a series of criminal prosecutions in New Haven, Connecticut against various members of the Black Panther Party. The charges ranged from criminal conspiracy to felony murder. All indictments stemmed from the murder of nineteen-year-old Alex Rackley in the early hours of May 21,...
of Bobby Seale
Bobby Seale
Robert George "Bobby" Seale , is an activist. He is known for co-founding the Black Panther Party with Huey Newton.-Early life:...
, founder of the Black Panther Party
Black Panther Party
The Black Panther Party wasan African-American revolutionary leftist organization. It was active in the United States from 1966 until 1982....
. Because the court was closed to artists and reporters, Templeton had to create his sketches secretly, and the resultant images are perhaps the only visual record that exists from the trial. Templeton was flown with his sketches to New York City, where the images were shown by Walter Cronkite
Walter Cronkite
Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr. was an American broadcast journalist, best known as anchorman for the CBS Evening News for 19 years . During the heyday of CBS News in the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the most trusted man in America" after being so named in an opinion poll...
on the CBS Evening News
CBS Evening News
CBS Evening News is the flagship nightly television news program of the American television network CBS. The network has broadcast this program since 1948, and has used the CBS Evening News title since 1963....
. In 2007, Templeton’s Black Panther trial sketches were purchased by Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
and exhibited at the Beinecke Library
Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Yale University's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library was a 1963 gift of the Beinecke family. The building was designed by architect Gordon Bunshaft of the firm of Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill, and is the largest building in the world reserved exclusively for the preservation of rare books...
.
After his experience in the Detroit riots, Templeton devoted more time to paint a record of the leading figures in the black civil rights movement. He felt that with the profound change in race relations, the nation owed the participants recognition for their devotion to the cause. For nearly twenty years he arranged portrait sittings with leaders in the movement, with the help and advice of Dr. Benjamin Mays
Benjamin Mays
Benjamin Elijah Mays was an American minister, educator, scholar, social activist and the president of Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia from 1940 to 1967. Mays was also a significant mentor to civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr...
, mentor and friend of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...
The resulting collection of over thirty paintings were first shown at Emory University
Emory University
Emory University is a private research university in metropolitan Atlanta, located in the Druid Hills section of unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. The university was founded as Emory College in 1836 in Oxford, Georgia by a small group of Methodists and was named in honor of...
with a grant from the Georgia Council of the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
. The title "Lest we forget... Images of the Black Civil Rights Movement" came out of a conversation Templeton had with Dr. Mays, who expressed regret that already so many people, their work and sacrifice, were forgotten. Since its first showing in 1986 the collection has toured the country.
External links
- RobertTempleton.com, official website of Robert Templeton
- National Portrait Gallery Hall of Presidents Official Smithsonian Site Showing Robert Templeton's portrait of President Jimmy Carter