Harry Wickey was an illustrator and printmaker, who turned to sculpture in the 1930s after his eyes were damaged from exposure to etching acids. Wickey was born and raised in Stryker, Ohio. He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and worked odd jobs to earn enough money to move to New York, where he enrolled at the Ferrer Modern School with the encouragement of Robert Henri. Later he studied with Harvey Dunn and produced illustrations for the Saturday Evening Post. He was drafted and served in World War I, mostly in France.
After the war, he turned to printmaking and teaching, which provided his primary livelihood between 1919 and 1933. He taught in his own studio and, from 1929 to 1933, at the Art Students League. In 1920 he began etching and received attention for his energetic city scenes. By 1938 he had started to sculpt seriously, translating his interest in urban types, like shoppers and aging boxers, into a new medium. Wickey's papers are housed at Syracuse University.
