A recent transfer of Art Department materials to the WCSU Archives contained 8 pieces by Connecticut-artist, R. Allen Hermes. These pieces are on long-term display in the Gallery directly below the Haas Library atrium.
R. Allen Hermes (1913 – 2004) was born in England and came to the United States at 16. He attended school in Buffalo where he won a national poster which entitled him to a four-year scholarship at Syracuse University. He graduated with honors with a degree in fine arts and the Hazard Fellowship, which afforded him a year to study art and architecture in Germany. In 1942 Hermes married Helen Davis, daughter of Dwight Davis who served as Secretary of War in the Coolidge administration and founded the Davis Cup tennis tournament. During World War II, Hermes served in Europe with the Corps of Engineers, during which he spent time painting his fellow peers and officers. After the war, Hermes and his wife Helen settled in Redding, CT where he continued to paint and teach, displaying his art in Silvermine, New York and the Wooster Gallery in Danbury. Hermes’ style encompassed a variety of subjects ranging from still life and landscapers to mythology and religious themes. Stylistically, he described his own paintings as being “closest to Baroque.”