Elyot Henderson and Bernard Karfiol

An important member of the Ogunquit art colony, Elyot Henderson was a painter and educator who, later in life, resided in Cape Neddick, Maine. Initially, however, he studied violin at Julliard, and began a career as a concert violinist. Deciding that live performing did not suit his nature, he went on to study at the Art Students League in New York, where he came under the tutelage of Bernard Karfiol and Robert Laurent, who later invited him to Maine. Henderson was curator at the Ogunquit Museum of Art in 1961. He also taught at Vassar College, Wheelock College, and at Berwick Academy in South Berwick, Maine.

Bernard Karfiol was born in Budapest of American parents. He grew up in Brooklyn and studied at the National Academy of Design in New York City. The simple, gestural drawing on view is the subject for which Karfiol is best known, the nude. His work has been exhibited and collected widely, whether nudes or landscapes or portraits. Many of his landscapes were inspired by his time in Maine. As one of several works donated by the Henderson family to this Museum, one imagines that these two artists would have simply exchanged drawings for this work to have come into the artist’s possession, a not uncommon occurrence.