Henry Curtis Ahl Jr.

Henry Curtis Ahl was born on December 30, 1905 in Springfield, Massachusetts.  He was known to have lived in Byfield, Massachusetts.  Ahl was a painter, illustrator, and writer who was known primarily for his landscape painting.  He also wrote and illustrated books on literary shrines and natural history subjects.  He studied art from his parents Henry Hammond Ahl and Eleanor Curtis Ahl and graduated with an B.A. from Harvard University.  Ahl was highly regarded for his sunlit and delicately rendered landscapes and seascapes.

Ahl was highly reclusive and a friend of Jon Kodwyck’s.  He lived with his parents near Springfield, Massachusetts until they died in 1953, and then he moved to a cabin life in Newburyport, Massachusetts.  He traveled later in his life, going to California, Florida, and New Hampshire.  He was a member of the North Shore Art Association and the Gloucester Society of Artists.

H. Curtis Ahl exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Springfield Art Association, the Portland Museum of Art, the Gloucester Art Association, the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts, the New Haven Paint & Clay Club, the Springfield (Utah) Art Association, and the Cushing House Museum, Newburyport, Massachusetts 1997 (memorial exhibition).

His work is represented in the Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, at the Farnsworth Museum, Rockland, Maine, the Sweat Memorial Museum, the Bowdoin Art College, Brunswick, Maine, the Springfield (Utah) Art Association, and at the John H. Vanderpoel Art Association, as well as, many other public and private collections and museums.

Henry Curtis Ahl died in Seabrook, New Hampshire on September 5, 1996.