Frank William Handlen (September 26, 1916 – May 25, 2023) was an American painter, sculptor and shipwright, known for his marine-based portraits.

Biography

Born in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

in 1916, and raised in

Caldwell, New Jersey Caldwell is a borough located in northwestern Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, about west of New York City and north-west of Newark, the state's most populous city. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population ...

, Handlen depicts ships, the sea and the Maine landscape in oil and pastels. In 1938, his mentor, marine artist Frederick Judd Waugh, encouraged him to go to Maine, "where it will all be before you". Handlen settled first in

Biddeford Pool Biddeford Pool is a neighborhood within the city of Biddeford, Maine, named for a large tidal pool located off Saco Bay (Maine), Saco Bay south of the mouth of the Saco River. It is approximately southeast of downtown Biddeford, Maine, Biddeford ...

and later in

Kennebunkport Kennebunkport is a resort town in York County, Maine, United States. The population was 3,629 people at the 2020 census. It is part of the Portland-South Portland-Biddeford metropolitan area. The town center, the area in and around Dock Squa ...

. As a young man, he worked in Bernie Warner's shipyard on the

Kennebunk River The Kennebunk River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed June 30, 2011 river in York County, Maine in the United States. It drains a settled rural area southwest of ...

and eventually designed and built his own forty-foot, sixteen ton topsail schooner, ''The Saltwind'', which is moored in the

behind his house, very near the site of the old shipyard. In 1994, he was commissioned to create the heroic bronze statue, ''Our Forebears of the Coast'', which stands on the

River Green. Handlen was a Fellow of The American Society of Marine Artists for 22 years. He illustrated "Seapiece The Story of a Maine Boy" by Will Beale and "The Story of Maine for Young Readers" by Melville Freeman and Estelle Hale Perry. His pastels, oil paintings and pen and ink drawings are extensively owned by private and corporate collectors including The Kennebunkport Historical Society, The Brick Store Museum, MBNA, Sears Roebuck and The

St. Botolph Club The St. Botolph Club is a gentlemen's club, private social club in Boston, Massachusetts, founded in 1880 by a group including many artists. Its name is derived from the English saint Botolph of Thorney. Among the club's other activities in its q ...

in Boston. He

turned 100 A centenarian is a person who has reached the age of 100. Because life expectancies at birth worldwide are well below 100, the term is invariably associated with longevity. The United Nations estimated that there were 316,600 living centenarian ...

in September 2016, and 105 in 2021. Handlen died in

Biddeford, Maine Biddeford ( ) is a city in York County, Maine, United States. It is the principal commercial center of York County. Its population was 22,552 at the 2020 census. The twin cities of Saco and Biddeford include the resort communities of Biddef ...

, on May 25, 2023, at the age of 106.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Handlen, Frank 1916 births 2023 deaths 20th-century American male artists 20th-century American painters American men centenarians American male painters American marine artists Painters from Brooklyn People from Caldwell, New Jersey