Harold Weston

Harold Weston was born in 1894 in Merion Station, Pennsylvania. At the age of sixteen, he contracted polio, which severely weakened his left leg. During his recovery, he developed an interest in art. In 1916, he graduated from Harvard University with a degree in Fine Arts. While at school, he edited the Harvard Lampoon and illustrated cartoons for the satirical magazine. During World War I, he volunteered with the YMCA and served with the British forces as an official painter in the Middle East, teaching soldiers drawing and painting in their spare hours. After returning to the United States in 1919, he constructed a one-room cabin in the Adirondacks near St. Huberts, New York, which functioned as a studio and seasonal residence throughout his career. His first one-man show opened in 1922 at the Montross Gallery in New York City. He contracted a serious kidney infection in 1925, moved to Ceres, France, for a few years to recover, and returned to New York City in 1930.

From 1936 to 1938, Weston worked on a prestigious mural commission for the Procurement Division Building in Washington, D.C., where he installed twenty-two panels in the lobby. Later in life, he became active in humanitarian causes. During World War II, he founded Food for Freedom, which provided relief to refugees experiencing food shortages. He returned to painting in 1949 to create six large canvases documenting the construction of the United Nations building in New York City. These paintings now reside at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Involved in several arts organizations, he served as president of the Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors from 1953 to 1957, president of the International Association of Art from 1962 to 1963, and chairman of the National Council on the Arts and Government from 1960 to 1970. In 1972, he died at the age of 78 in New York City.