15 Facts About Harry Sternberg

Harry Sternberg, was an American painter, printmaker and educator.

Harry Sternberg taught at the Art Students League of New York, from 1933 to c 1966.

Harry Sternberg was born in New York City on July 19,1904.

The family moved to Brooklyn in 1910 and Harry Sternberg began orthodox Jewish religious training.

Harry Sternberg rented his first studio in Greenwich Village in 1926 and began his career in etching, printmaking and painting.

Harry Sternberg was appointed in 1933 to the staff of the Art Students League of New York where he would remain an instructor for the next 35 years.

Harry Sternberg was one of the first to see its implications both social and aesthetic.

Harry Sternberg was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1936, and spent the year studying the conditions of workers in coal mines and steel mills.

In 1937, Harry Sternberg painted his first post office mural, Carrying the Mail in Sellersville, Pennsylvania.

Harry Sternberg traveled to Chicago, where he studied the city's history, architecture, industry, and workers which resulted in his mural Chicago: Epoch of a Great City, for the Lakeview post office in Chicago.

In 1906, Upton Sinclair's novel, The Jungle, had graphically described life for workers in Chicago's stockyards and steel mills and Harry Sternberg strived to captured their struggle.

Harry Sternberg married Mary Gosney in 1939 and their family, including their baby daughter, are depicted in the Ambler, Pennsylvania post office mural, The Family, Industry and Agriculture.

Harry Sternberg was fond of self-portraits and painted his likeness into the scientist figure in his mural for the Lakeview post office.

Harry Sternberg had previously written and published two books: a book on composition called Composition: The Anatomy of Picture Making, and a book on woodblock cutting and printing called Woodcut.

Harry Sternberg died in Escondido, California, on November 27,2001.