Shetterly, Robert (1946 - )

Genre: Illustrator

Robert Shetterly was born in 1946 in Cincinnati, Ohio. He graduated in 1969 from Harvard College with a degree in English Literature. At Harvard he took a couple of courses in drawing which changed the direction of his creative life --- from the written word to the image. Also, during this time, he was very active in Civil Rights and in the Anti-Vietnam War movement.

After college and moving to Maine in 1970, he taught himself drawing, printmaking, and painting. While trying to become proficient in printmaking & painting, he illustrated widely. For twelve years he did the editorial page drawings for the Maine Times newspaper, illustrated National Audubon's children's newspaper Audubon Adventures, and approximately 30 books.

Now, his paintings & prints are in collections all over the U.S. and Europe. A collection of his drawings & etchings, Speaking Fire at Stones, was published in 1993. He is well know for his series of 70 painted etchings based on William Blake's Proverbs of Hell, and for another series of 50 painted etchings reflecting on the metaphor of the Annunciation. His painting tends toward the narrative and the surreal, and he has not been, until this time, a portrait painter.

Robert Shetterly lives, with his partner Gail Page, also a painter, in Brooksville, Maine.

Selected Bibliography

  • Three Million Mice : a Story of Modern Medical Research by Ada and Frank Graham, drawings by Robert Shetterly (1981)
  • The Dragon Hunters by Frank Graham, Jr., illustrations by Robert Shetterly (1984)
  • The New Year's Owl : Encounters with Animals, People & the Land They Share by Susan Hand Shetterly, etchings by Robert Shetterly, Jr (1986)
  • Speaking Fire at Stones (1992)
  • Americans Who Tell the Truth (c2005)

Selected Resources