Henry Billings
Henry Billings (July 13, 1901 – October 1985) was an American artist. He was a painter, illustrator, muralist, and art instructor active in New York City. He was a grandson of John Shaw Billings, a surgeon and the first director of the New York Public Library.
Henry Billings
ImagenAdam · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Name
- Henry Billings
- Born
- July 13, 1901
- Birthplace
- Bronxville, New York
- Died
- October 1985
- Place of death
- Sag Harbor, New York
- Nationality
- United States
- Occupation
- painter · illustrator
- Education
- Art Students League of New York
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Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q15428836 · wikipedia · Henry Billings
In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Henry Billings • Born — July 13, 1901 • Birthplace — Bronxville, New York • Died — October 1985 • Place of death — Sag Harbor, New York
Life and work
Life and work
Billings attended St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire. He also studied at the Art Students League of New York, and was a member of the Art Colony of Woodstock, New York. His painting style shows an interest in the mechanical and machinery, as well as an attraction to surrealism. During the New Deal, Billings created a number of murals on commissions overseen by the Treasury Department's Section of Painting and Sculpture (later, the Section of Fine Arts). In 1936–37, he created a series of five murals depicting winter sports for the Lake Placid, New York post office. He also contributed murals to post offices in Medford, Massachusetts, Wappinger Falls, New York, and Columbia, Tennessee, and a striking mural of a panther which still hangs near the ladies' powder room in Radio City Music Hall at Rockefeller Center. In 1945, Billings created a series of paintings for Life magazine depicting "strafing targets as they appear to the fighter pilot through the transparent rectangle of his reflector gunsight." Billings died in Sag Harbor, New York, in October 1985.
Public art
Public art
• "Panther Mural", 1932, Radio City Music Hall, Rockefeller Center • "Golden Triangle of Trade." 1939, Post Office of Medford, Massachusetts • "Maury County Landscape", 1942, Post Office of Columbia, Tennessee
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Bronxville.
Birth place
Sag Harbor.
Death place
Paintings
• "White Boats", circa 1929
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Henry Billings, revision 1374119650 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Billings, Henry. Number: 071-12-2279; Issue State: New York. U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935–Current. Ancestry.com.
- 2.AskArt. Henry Billings.
- 3.Edward, Alden Jewell. Exhibition by Henry Billings reveals the artist as being enrolled with the surrealistes. New York Times. Jan 22, 1933.
- 4.Manchester, Lee. Fine art adorns Placid post office. Lake Placid News. September 1, 2006.
- 5.Time Inc. Ground Strafing: Paintings show what U.S. fliers see during low-altitude attacks. 54–56. 30 July 1945. 0024-3019.
- 6.Lot Description: Henry Billings (1901–1985), White Boats. Christie's.
- 7.Rockefeller Center. Panther Mural. Art and History.
- 8.Hamill, Kyna. New Insights into the Medford Post Office Mural. Fall 2011.
- 9.Howard Hull. Tennessee Post Office Murals. The Overmountain Press. 34–. 1996. 978-1-57072-030-7.
- 10.Carroll Van West. Tennessee's New Deal Landscape: A Guidebook. Univ. of Tennessee Press. 7–. 2001. 978-1-57233-108-2.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 17 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Illustration
5,224 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Henrik DrescherIllustrator
- Henrik GrønvoldIllustrator
- Henrik TikkanenIllustrator
- HenriotIllustrator
- Henry BradburyIllustrator
- Henry BrewisIllustrator
- Henry BunburyIllustrator
- Henry C. PearsonIllustrator
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