ABOUT

  • Artist Richard Halstead has spent his entire professional career immersed in the subject of portraiture. He is a lecturer and the author of published articles on portraiture as a unique tradition and art form. He has painted commissioned portraits for public figures, universities, corporations and families in the Chicago area, New York, Toronto, and beyond.

 

  • CURRENT PROJECT
  • U.S. Circuit Court Judges, Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit

 

  • COLLECTIONS
  • National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
  • State Capitol, Springfield, Illinois
  • Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
  • Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana
  • Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana
  • University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
  • University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
  • University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky
  • Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire
  • Children’s Memorial Hospital Research Center, Chicago, Illinois
  • Saddle and Sirloin Club, Louisville, Kentucky
  • American Academy of Art, Chicago, Illinois
  • Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois
  • Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois, Chicago
  • Loyola University School of Law, Chicago, IL
  • Chicago Bar Association

 

  • SELECTED PORTRAIT SUBJECTS
  • Candace Jackson-Akiwumi, U.S. Circuit Court Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
  • Marshall Field V – President, Field Enterprises; Chairman Board of Directors, Art Institute of Chicago
  • Bruce Rauner, Former Governor of Illinois
  • Jay Tunney, author of The Prizefighter and the Playwright, and the son of world champion prizefighter Gene Tunney
  • Ambassador James Collins – Ambassador of the United States to the Russian Federation (1997-2001)
  • Joseph Cardinal Bernardin – Roman Catholic prelate, Archbishop of Chicago
  • Mitch Daniels – Governor, State of Indiana
  • George Ryan – Governor, State of Illinois
  • Dr. Steven Beering – President, Purdue University
  • Dr. Harrie Vanderstappen – Chairman, Art History Department, University of Chicago
  • Justin Stanley – President, American Bar Association
  • Wade Harrison – President, Harrison Steel, Attica, Indiana
  • Archibald McClure – Senior Vice President, Quaker Oats
  • John Foster – President, Joseph T. Ryerson & Son/Inland Steel
  • Oran Little – Dean Emeritus, College of Agriculture, University of Kentucky
  • Dr. Bernard Mirkin – President, Children’s Memorial Research Center, Chicago
  • Dr. Joseph Golbus – President, North Shore Medical Group
  • Arthur Erickson – Recipient gold medal American Institute of Architecture
  • Royce Abbey – President, Rotary International
  • Reverend Mark Sisk – Dean, Seabury Western Theological Seminary
  • Reverend E. Don Taylor – Episcopal Bishop of New York (formerly of the Virgin Islands)
  • Reverend Harold Wright – Episcopal Bishop of New York

Richard Halstead

 

TEACHING 

Halstead School of Portrait and Figure Art, Evanston, IL

American Academy of Art, Chicago

Ontario College of Art, Toronto

Prairie State College, Chicago Heights, IL

EXHIBITIONS AND ORGANIZATIONS

Oil Painters of America, Signature Member
Pastel Society of America, Signature Member
The Portrait Institute, New York
Portrait Society of America
Washington Society of Portrait Artists

Evolution of a Portrait Artist

Richard Halstead’s fascination with portraits began with a copy of Gilbert Stuart’s portrait of George Washington that hung in his primary school hallway.  That was followed a little later by the discovery of prints of old master paintings in his parents’ attic, leaving on him a long-lasting, indelible impression of Rembrandt’s portrait The Man with the Golden Helmet and Hans Holbein’s portrait of Sir Thomas More. 

Later, as he was studying to become an illustrator at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, he became especially interested in the combination of graphic design and portraiture that he saw in the works of many of the 20th century portrait-illustrators.  From that he became aware of the significance of compositional design as language in portrait work.  

The list of portraits and portrait artists that have inspired him, including classical painters, many contemporary realists as well as under-appreciated although very accomplished, continues to grow.

After several years of teaching figure drawing and painting at the Ontario College of Art in Toronto, Halstead returned to Chicago to teach figure drawing at the American Academy of Art.  Later he left the Academy to focus on painting commissioned portraits and to create the Halstead School of Portrait and Figure Art at the Noyes Cultural Arts Center in Evanston, Illinois.  Recently he has left teaching entirely to devote all of his efforts to his work as a commissioned portrait artist.

Halstead’s career has evolved as much through his interest in people as his skills in painting.  He approaches portrait painting by developing a sense of the whole person and the defining characteristics of the individual.   He creates a visual symbol that highlights and telegraphs those qualities.

  CONTACT