Obituary

Lucien B. Day, 91, died at his home in Craftsbury Thursday night, May 29, 2008. Born in Hartford, CT, August 26, 1916, the son of Arthur and Lucy (Bunce) Day, he graduated from Yale, having been voted class poet, and spent the Second World War in the Army, serving on the Pentagon’s China desk. Studying art at the Cranbrook Academy in Michigan, he became a dedicated painter of landscapes and figures and a generous supporter of artists and the arts. His career as a painter, spanning eight decades, ranged from New York City to the Northeast Kingdom. He was for many years a patron of the Craftsbury Chamber Players. His friends and correspondents included Fairfield Porter, Francis Colburn, John Marin, Alex Katz, Lois Dodd and Rudy Burckhardt, among many others. In 1968, he founded, in Greenwich Village, a central institution in the Figurative Revival, the Green Mountain Gallery, where a number of artists, both young and established, were invited to exhibit. His own work has been exhibited at The Museum of Modern Art, the Hudson River Museum, the Wadsworth Atheneum, the New Britain Museum of American Art, the Philips Memorial Gallery, the Fleming Museum, and, most recently, in a retrospective at the Helen Day Art Center in Stowe. In June 2006 the Vermont Arts Council presented Day with the Walter Cerf Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts. Reviews of his work have appeared in The New York Times, Art New England, Arts Magazine, Art News, the Times Argus, and Vermont Times. Many of his works are held in private and public collections. He is survived by his wife, Jean Poppy (Raymond) Day of Craftsbury and his first wife, J. Day Mason; also, his children Felicity and husband John Doble, of California; Sarah and husband, Lawrence Richard, of Walden; Margot Day Mellett and husband Kurtis Mellett of Craftsbury; 17 grandchildren and 21 great-grandchildren. He was predeceased by a son, Christopher Day.