Cleveland History Blog

My favorite painter of Cleveland scenes dies at 94

Tonight I received notice that Martin Linsey had died in New Mexico. He was 94, so it wasn't entirely a surprise, but I'm nevertheless sadden by the passing of a very nice man with whom I'd had enjoyable connections.

Sometime in the 1990s I became aware of his watercolors and black & white drawings of Cleveland scenes and collected a number of his prints personally. They now hang where I can gaze upon them regularly. Sometime a few years ago I decided to include artistic scenes of Cleveland in our Cleveland Memory Project, so tracked Mr. Linsey down in New Mexico and asked for permission. He said he had slides he could send me and we consequently mounted the first installment of them to Cleveland Memory. But when I tried to send them back to him, my package was returned by the post office, who had no forwarding address. I was very uneasy for many months until I finally got back in touch with him.

More recently, the donor of our magnificent collection of photographs of the building of the Terminal Tower was in town and came to visit. While chatting he mentioned his father and I politely said "Oh, is he still alive?" Bob replied that he was, living in New Mexico. Suddenly I put two and two together, realized Bob's last name is Linsey and confirmed that Martin Linsey was his father. So all the time I'd been frantically trying to find Martin, I had his son's number on my speed dial. I may have felt dumber in my life, but this was right up there.

Meanwhile, we continue to build a Cleveland Memory presence about Martin Linsey and, coincidentally, just this week arranged for the purchase of a set of his black & white prints, not knowing of his impending death. This is all very sad, but we hope to help keep his memory alive.

Labels: Cleveland artist, Cleveland history, Cleveland OH, Martin Linsey

posted by Bill Barrow @ 9:18:00 PM