Durr Freedley

There’s still a little bit of time to see the Durr Freedley retrospective at the Newport Art Museum. While this show focuses on the artist’s time as a painter of society portraits, Freedley (1888-1938) was a fascinating character, a one-time Harvard Lampoon editor who later became decorative arts curator at the Met in New York. During World War I he helped the Army develop camouflage patterns, and if you know Newport well you may know Freedley’s murals at the Seaman’s Church Institute on Bannister’s Wharf.