In his day Robert Brackman was among the country’s most prominent portraitists, and he received numerous awards for his figure paintings and still lifes. He studied at the Francisco Ferrer School in New York with ROBERT HENRI and GEORGE BELLOWS and then at the school of the National Academy of Design with LEON KROLL and Ivan Olinsky (1878-1962) from 1919 to 1922. He traveled to England with his friend ROBERT PHILIPP. Brackman exhibited widely in annuals, and his first solo exhibition was held at the Milch Gallery in New York in 1925. He was elected an associate of the National Academy of Design in 1932 and a member in 1940. He devoted considerable time to teaching, at the Art Students League from 1934, as well as at other schools, including the Madison Art School in Connecticut, which he opened in 1957. After 1926 he summered in Noank, Connecticut, and in 1938 moved there permanently, giving up his New York studio. He was a member of virtually every artists’ group devoted to conservative art.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Archiv. Am. Art, Robert Brackman Papers § Malcolm Vaughan, "Robert Brackman," Creative Art 12 (April 1933): 276-83 § Kenneth Bates, Brackman: His Art and Teaching (Noank, Conn.: Noank Publishing Studio, 1950), with lists of collections, portraits, and prizes, bibliography § Joseph De Bona, "Robert Brackman: Rebel with a Brush," American Artist 25 (December 1961): 32-39, 80-81 § Norfolk (Va.) Museum of Arts and Sciences, Paintings by Robert Brackman: A Retrospective Exhibition, exh. cat., 1965, with foreword by Henry B. CaIdwell.