Martin Linsey collection of Cleveland Museum of Art photographs

Martin Louis Linsey was born in Cleveland on November 20, 1915 to Dr. Philip Robert and Ida Linsey. He studied at the Cleveland Institute of Art from 1936-1938, graduated with a Bachelors in Education from the University of Miami in 1951, and received a Master’s Degree in Art History from Western Reserve University in 1952. Already well known as a painter and watercolorist, Linsey was surprised to be refused entrance into the U.S. Marine Corps in 1941 due to being partially colorblind. He served instead in the army, making maps in the combat zones of Europe.

As a young man, Linsey worked on boats in the Caribbean, painting scenes of Florida and the Bahamas, many of which were entered into the museum’s May Show. He exhibited in this annual, juried exhibition from 1937-1979, often winning top prizes. He traveled regularly throughout the United States, Central America, and Europe where he studied and painted. In 1940 his travels took him to New Orleans, where, painting from a balcony of a building in the French Quarter, he noted another artist painting in the courtyard below. Unbeknownst to him, that artist was fellow Clevelander Joseph Jicha, whose painting Vieux Carré, featuring Linsey at his easel on the balcony, was accepted into the 1940 May Show.

Before joining the museum as an instructor in the education department in 1960, Linsey worked as an industrial designer and photographer. At the museum he taught classes for children and adults, and conducted tours. He took photographs for museum publications and also for other publishers. He continued his artistic career, exhibiting at various galleries in Cleveland in addition to the Art Institute of Chicago, Butler Art Institute, Cincinnati Museum of Art, and elsewhere. Sixteen of his works are in the primary collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. In addition, thirteen works are part of the museum’s education art collection.

Linsey’s responsibilities in the museum education department included hosting Agatha Christie and her husband, M.E.L. Mallowan, the renowned scholar, archaeologist, author, and president of the British Institute of Persian Studies, when he spoke at the museum in November, 1966. The couple were in Cleveland for five days examining the collection and discussing their research with curatorial staff. Linsey served as their chauffeur, driving them around town in search of pre-war houses with front porches for Miss Christie to photograph.

Linsey retired to Scottsdale, Arizona, in 1980, where he volunteered as a photographer for the Phoenix Art Museum. Following the death of his first wife, Arline Schwartz, with whom he had three children, he married Maria Major and relocated to New Mexico. He died in 2010.