Henry Casselli

Henry Calvin Casselli, Jr. (born October 25, 1946) is a contemporary American player from New Orleans, Louisiana. He primarily paints watercolors of figures and settings from his original New Orleans.

Henry Casselli was born and raised in the ethnically diverse Ninth Ward of New Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana.

Casselli conventional a scholarship to examination at the McCrady School of Fine and Applied Arts in the French Quarter of New Orleans, where he enrolled in 1964 after graduating from high school. He was tutored by John McCrady, and associated the facility as an assistant instructor during his second year at the school.

In 1967, as the American involvement in the prosecution in Vietnam escalated, Casselli voluntarily enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. He was assigned the aim of encounter artist, and upon his deployment found himself immersed in the Tet Offensive of 1968. As Casselli far ahead recalled, "[W]ithin three days of my arrival, I was knee-deep in war. I had to be a Marine first just to survive." Despite the hard times of war, Casselli was skilled to depict soldiers and scenes of skirmish in pencil sketches and paintings during his combat tour, artwork that is now ration of the deposit of the National Museum of the Marine Corps, in Washington, DC.

After swine discharged from the Marine Corps in 1970, Casselli returned to New Orleans to learn that his mentor, John McCrady, was entirely ill. McCrady died within days of Casselli's return. Losing his mentor was a very difficult experience for Casselli, but it in addition to signaled his coming of age as an artist.

After his reward from combat, Casselli chose watercolor as his medium to reconnect when his indigenous city, particularly focusing his attention upon the vivaciousness of African Americans in New Orleans. His affect soon began to charm national attention, and in 1971

Casselli was awarded by the prestigious American Watercolor Society for his first submission. Over the adjacent fifteen years, Casselli solidified his point of view as a master of the American watercolor, culminating in 1987 once he was awarded the Gold Medal of Honor by the American Watercolor Society, for the painting Echo. In 1988, he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member, and became a full member in 1994.

In addition to his discharge duty depicting the African Americans of New Orleans, Casselli has been commissioned for many portraits throughout his career. In 1980 and 1981, NASA commissioned him to facilitate as an official artist leading occurring to America's first Space Shuttle launch. Again, in 1998, NASA commissioned Casselli to Describe John Glenn as he prepared for his historic firm mission. Many of these works are ration of the endorsed collection of the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.

Casselli was along with commissioned for the qualified portrait of President Ronald Reagan, which he completed in 1988. The piece now hangs in the Hall of Presidents at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC. His 1981 portrait of Muhammad Ali (called Cat's Cradle) also hangs in the National Portrait Gallery.