Theodore Hancock

Theodore ("Theo") R. Hancock (November 16, 1923 – July 28, 1989) was a British-born, naturalised American artist, working chiefly in watercolor.[1][2][3][4]

For the American lawyer and politician, see Theodore E. Hancock.

Theodore R. Hancock
Hancock (left) presents a watercolor of the 'Titan Integrate – Transfer – Launch Complex' at Cape Kennedy to Maj. Gen. David M. Jones, Air Force Eastern Test Range commander, circa February 1970. The picture was added to the Air Force Space Museum collection.
Born(1923-11-16)November 16, 1923
DiedJuly 28, 1989(1989-07-28) (aged 65)
NationalityBritish, naturalised American.
Other namesTheo
OccupationArtist

Early life

Hancock was born in Buckinghamshire, England to a military father and was educated at Sutton Valence school in the Kent Downs. After finishing school in 1942, Hancock saw war service with the British Army as a gunner subaltern in Greece and Italy.[5] He attended Pembroke College, Cambridge in 1944 and in 1948 took up a Fellowship in Art to Brown University in Rhode Island, New York.[6]

Career

Described by Time magazine as a 'brash, engaging young Briton', he exhibited widely throughout North America during his time at Brown University and thereafter, including in Boston, Manhattan, Providence, Chicago, Toronto, San Francisco and Los Angeles.[7] He remained resident in the United States, painting in a former Methodist chapel in New Hamburg, New York.[8] Hancock mainly worked in watercolour and his art was both modernist and distinguished by a strong interest in engineering and technology. He concentrated on urban landscapes, trying to capture what he called the 'visual language that technology uses to create the city environment'.[5] His mural, Man and Computers, explores the close relationship linking man and the then-new machine, with a 'web-like intimacy' between the two.[9]

He was an official artist to NASA and its Apollo space programme in the 1960s as part of the NASA Art Program.[3][10] He later undertook commissions for the United States Navy, including journeys at sea on Polaris nuclear submarines.[4] Hancock also held the position of Cadet Fine Arts Forum Visiting Artist at the United States Military Academy for the 1979–80 academic year, during which he produced watercolours of West Point scenery.[11]

His work can be found in the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., the United States Navy Art Collection, the Air Force Space & Missile Museum, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Agnes Scott College in Georgia and the University of Texas at Galveston among others.[4][12] Another piece was owned by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.[3]

Hancock was also known in the 1950s for having organised and supported the Harlem-based New York Negro Ballet Company troupe, who were invited to take part in the Monte Carlo Festival of Ballet in December 1957.[13]

References
  1. Hancock, Theodore. "Social Security Death Index". genealogybank.com/. genealogybank. Retrieved January 26, 2015.
  2. "Theo Hancock". Smithsonian American Art Museum. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved January 26, 2015.
  3. "Cheltenham Town Hall 2". Antiques Roadshow. Series 35. Episode 19. April 14, 2013. BBC Television. Retrieved April 16, 2013.
  4. Dills, John C. (November 14, 1969). "Apollo Artist Visits Vat Cave". Times-News. Hendersonville, North Carolina, US. Retrieved June 5, 2013.
  5. Hancock, Theodore (1972). "Water-Colour Murals of Technology". Leonardo. 5 (3): 199–202. doi:10.2307/1572375. JSTOR 1572375. S2CID 193119436.
  6. "Small Talk". Brown Alumni Monthly. 49: 10. March 1949.
  7. "Art: Open Road". Time. December 1950. Retrieved July 14, 2020.
  8. "New of Old Suttonians". The Suttonian. 33: 49. December 1978.
  9. Bourne, Arthur (2003). "Engineering and the artist's eye". Ingenia. 17.
  10. "List of NASA Art Program Artists". NASA. NASA. Archived from the original on July 17, 2013. Retrieved June 4, 2013.
  11. "West Point Paintings". Assembly. 39: 37. September 1980.
  12. "Theodore Hancock's "Portraits" of Tor House" (PDF). Tor House Newsletter. 2017. Retrieved July 14, 2020.
  13. "Travelogue". JET. 13: 41. November 1957.


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