HARLAN HUBBARD AND WADE HALL: LIFE AND ART.
by R. Ted Steinbock, MD
Wade Hall (1934-2015) was a Professor of English at Bellarmine University for 30 years before retiring and returning to his native Alabama. He was the author of numerous books and articles on Kentucky and Kentuckians such as statesman Wilson W. Wyatt, civil rights leader Lyman Johnson, and country music performer Pee Wee King. He organized the Ohio Valley Book Fair and hosted the long-running interview show on KET called “Wade Hall’s Kentucky Desk.” A fellow inquisitive and inveterate collector, I knew Wade for years, and we often shared our latest Kentucky acquisitions and traded back and forth.
Wade made several visits to Payne Hollow in the last years of Harlan’s life, specifically on June 27, 1987, and later in August about five months before Harlan’s death. They also corresponded back and forth, and Wade used these interviews to publish “A Visit with Harlan Hubbard” that was printed in 1996 by the University of Kentucky Libraries. It is a brief but wonderful account of Harlan’s reminisces about his early life, his past life with Anna, and his current life as an octogenarian and widower living alone at Payne Hollow. This is a much more personal account than in Harlan’s own journals and provides details not generally available elsewhere. Here Harlan becomes an individual rather than writer and artist. Though not readily available, I highly recommend this “Hubbard monologue” that Wade produced from these visits and letters.
On Dec 11, 1986, Harlan received the Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement at a ceremony hosted by Governor Martha Layne Collins. The printed program has a watercolor of the Ohio River shoreline painted by Harlan in 1949. (Fig 1). Titled “River Scene,” the original work was presented by Gov. Collins to Barry Bingham, Sr. (1906-1988) who received the Milner Award that same evening in recognition for his longtime commitment to the Arts. On March 11, 1986, Harlan presented to Wade Hall a large oil painting dated 1950 that was inspired by the watercolor. (Fig 2). On the back in large cursive writing Harlan inscribes “For Wade Hall. Anna and I enjoyed your visits. We look forward to your book. Harlan Hubbard, March 11, 1986.” A note signed by Wade is also attached to the back stating “Oil painting by Harlan Hubbard inspired by the watercolor of 1949 used for the cover of the Governor Arts Award which Harlan received in 1986. Harlan presented me this work in 1986. Wade Hall.”
This large oil painting measures 23 x 28 ½ inches and is a prized part of my Hubbard art collection. Both the watercolor and the oil exhibit Harlan’s looser style and they are imbued with his love for the Ohio River and its everchanging shoreline. I am indebted to Crit Luallen for providing me with the original Governor’s Awards in the Arts program for 1986. She was Commissioner of the Kentucky Department of the Arts at that time.