H. Lee Hirsche was born July 31st, 1927 in New London, Ct. He studied under Josef Albers at the Yale School of Fine Arts. From 1954 to 1956 he taught basic design at the Architectural School at the University of Texas. At UT, he and a small number of graduates from the Yale School of Fine Arts became famously known as the "Texas Rangers." Hirsche was then recruited to Williams College in Williamstown, MA, where he became Professor of Art and started the studio art department. He taught at Williams for thirty-two years. Following his retirement, he founded the Sculpture Fountain Studio in neighboring North Adams, then moved to Baltimore, MD in 1989 where he remained a prolific artist.

H. Lee Hirsche was an inventive artist who worked in many mediums, among them: wood sculpture; brass rod screens; brass and copper fountains; wood and metal wall reliefs; egg and stone constructions; polymer tempera, wire and steel wool figures; large stone constructions; acrylic landscape and large portrait paintings; oil landscape paintings; collages and assemblages; ink-wash drawings; water colors; pencil drawings and photographs. We have tried on this website to show outstanding representations of most of the media he worked in, but obviously, to show all would be impossible.

Hirsche is survived by Nancy Hubbard Hirsche, whom he married In 1952 and was his wife for forty-six years until his death at 71. He died Thanksgiving night 1998, on Block Island, RI, while on vacation with his family.

Hirsche exhibited in many galleries and museums in New England and on the East coast. They included: The Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA; Lawrence Art Museum, Williams College; The Berkshire Art Museum, Pittsfield, MA; the Mystic Art Gallery, Mystic Conn.; Rennselear Polytechnical Institute, Troy, NY.; the Schenectady Art Museum, Schenectady, NY.; the Carlyn Gallery New York City; Galerie Atelier, Philadelphia, PA; the Sylvia Cordish Gallery, Baltimore, MD; the Custom Framing Gallery, Baltimore; the Life Of Maryland Gallery, Baltimore; and the Massoni Gallery, Chestertown, MD.

Hirsche’s work is represented in the collections of approximately 2000 public and private institutions and people. These include The Lawrence Art Museum, Williams College; a cross in the Williams College chapel; brass and copper sculptures commissioned by the Williams College Music Dep't.; a mural, Volkswagon Showroom, Bennington, VT; Cast concrete letters, Temple Anshe Amonim, Pittsfield, Mass.; a reredos, St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Albany , NY; sculpture, N.E. Headquarters Blue Cross, Albany, NY; sculpture, Berkshire Bank and Trust, North Adams, Mass.; mural, Rodney Hunt Machine Co., Orange, MA; sculpture, Temple Kness, Pittsfield, MA; and Cross, the Lutheran Church, Albany, NY, two collages and one graphite drawing at the Baltimore Museum of Art; and a large acrylic portrait on loan at the Eubie Blake Cultural Center in Baltimore.

Posthumously he had a retrospective at Williams College and one of his large acrylic portraits "Blue Necklace" was shown in an exhibit entitled "Hair" at Skidmore College, NY.

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