Jane Freilicher

1924 - 2014

Brooklyn native Jane Freilicher was a representational painter who emerged out of the "New York School," a loose association of painters and poets active during the 1950s and 60s. Freilicher studied under Hans Hofmann, and earned degrees from both Brooklyn College and Columbia University's Teacher's College. Her wide circle of friends and acquaintances included fellow Hofmann student Nell Blaine and poet Gerrit Lansing. Freilicher's portrait of Lansing is in the Cape Ann Museum's permanent collection.

Regarding Gerrit Lansing and his portrait, author and poet David Rich wrote the following:

"Poet Gerrit Lansing (1928 – 2018) moved to Gloucester from New York City initially to accompany a friend who had been hired to work as a chauffeur at Hammond Castle by the inventor John Hays Hammond, Jr. While living at the Castle Lansing became enamored of Gloucester and its wooded landscapes including Dogtown Common and the vernal ponds of Magnolia. It was also in Gloucester that Lansing fell in love with an English-born sailor and yacht captain named Deryk Burton. The two men remained a couple for almost thirty-five years, and in the early 1980s they returned to Gloucester where Lansing operated the used bookstore Abraxas out of a small room above the Rigger bar on Main Street. This portrait of Lansing by Jane Freilicher is a souvenir of his New York days and it adorns The Heavenly Tree Grows Downward (1966), Lansing’s first book of poetry. Lansing and Freilicher were both connected to Tibor de Nagy Gallery, where Freilicher received her first solo show and Lansing’s poetry was published by the gallery’s literary newsletter, Semi-Colon. Lansing expanded his Heavenly Tree series in the books Heavenly Tree Soluble Forest (1995) and Heavenly Tree Northern Earth (2009)."