John A. Hartell
John Anthony Hartell (1902–1995) was an American artist of first the Impressionist and later the Modern styles. He was born in Brooklyn. As an artist, Hartell gives shape and form to those aspects which are least substantial: light, atmosphere, and memory. Early life Hartell’s undergraduate studies were in a technical field, with art appealing to him as a secondary interest. He earned his bachelor's degree in architecture from Cornell University in 1925, where he joined the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. He was then selected for a graduate fellowship at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm. John practiced his art during these years and continued to do so over the next forty years while teaching architecture at Clemson College and the University of Illinois and, after 1930, back on the Hill at Cornell, where he also taught art. Once in Ithaca, New York, Hartell sought to bring art into the lives of both Cornell students and faculty, including by organizing an art exhibit in the Willard Straight Memorial featuring hundreds of works. In 1936, he illustrated “Over in the Meadow; an old Nursery Rhyme.” During that period, he was commissioned to design a number of residences. He also partnered