First Advisor

Carmen Ripollés, Ph.D

Date of Award

6-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Art History and University Honors

Department

Art History

Language

English

Subjects

Sally Haley, Portland art, Modern art, Egg Tempera, 20th century, painting

Abstract

Sally Haley is a successful artist who built a long career in the second half of the 20th century as a painter in Portland, Oregon. Her work has been part of several solo and group exhibitions within museums and galleries across the country and she was awarded the Oregon Governor’s Award for the Arts in 1989. She is best remembered for her unique still life paintings, frequently painted in egg tempera, which sold immensely well during her lifetime and after. Haley trained at the Yale School of Art in the late 1920s and early 30s, where she learned to paint in egg tempera using the traditional painting techniques of the Renaissance era. In 1947 she and her husband, artist Michele Russo, moved to Portland.

Even for all the success Haley had as a woman artist in the 20th century, I’ve noticed a marked decline in her works being shown, and her name being mentioned in the discourse, after her passing in 2007. Her unique style of painting is sometimes difficult to categorize, and her career spanned decades of rapid social change, resulting in an oeuvre that breaks apart into at least three different visual periods. This thesis will focus on her life and her style as it changes from one decade to the next, and explain some of the reasons for her work being overlooked in both the past and the present.

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