Conditions Governing Use

Permission to publish or reproduce is required from the copyright holder. For more information, please see the Permissions and Copyright page on the West Virginia and Regional History Center website.

Conditions Governing Access

No special access restriction applies.

Preferred Citation

[Description and date of item], [Box/folder number], George Senseney, Artist, Commercially Published Print of Painting by Senseney, A&M 4076, West Virginia and Regional History Center, West Virginia University Libraries, Morgantown, West Virginia.

Biographical / Historical

George Eyster Senseney was born in Wheeling, West Virginia on October 11, 1874. He was the son of Charles H. Senseney and Anna M. Eyster. George E. Senseney attended the public schools in Wheeling and the Linsly Military Academy.

Mr. Senseney studied at the Corcoran School of Art (now the Corcoran College of Art and Design) and received private instruction from the Washington, D.C. artist, Howard Helmick. George E. Senseney moved to Paris in 1899, where he attended the prestigious Academie Julien. Mr. Senseney's work was displayed at the Paris Salon in 1901. In the same year, he returned to the Washington, D.C. area, bringing his knowledge of color etching to the United States. From 1906-1907, he taught the practice of etching at the Art Students' League in New York.

George E. Senseney returned to France in 1910, where he continued to etch in color and to produce lithographs and wood blocks. In the years 1910 to 1914, he was elected as a member to two prestigious societies for artists, a testament to the respect he had in the community at that time.

In London, England on October 25, 1912, George Eyster Senseney married Dorothy Lucille Stewart, the daughter of the American painter William Wright Stewart and a jewelry-maker who had exhibited in Paris. They would have three children: Virginia Stewart, George Leonard, and William Stewart Senseney.

Mr. and Mrs. Senseney moved to the Northeastern United States in 1914, where he taught classes in etching in Provincetown, Massachusetts. In 1915, George Eyster and Dorothy Lucille Senseney moved to Chicago, where Mr. Senseney and Frederick F. Fursman established the New School of Art.

He earned a silver medal for etching at the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco.

In 1917, Mr. Senseney taught at Smith College and worked as the art director at the Holyoke, Massachusetts American Writing Paper Company developing the process of marbling paper.

In 1921, George Eyster Senseney, Russell H. Breewell, and Francis C. Heywood opened the Marvellum Company of Holyoke. The Marvellum Company was the first company to produce marbled paper using a machine and continued to venture in to the processes of embossing, coating and printing decorative papers. He remained at this company throughout his career and obtained numerous patents, including one for the "Sensagraph" process for printing on silks.

George Eyster Senseney died in Ipswich, Massachusetts in 1943 at age 69.

Information adapted from website:

http://www.georgesenseney.com/about.html

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Art and artists