Jirayr Hamparzoom Zorthian (April 14, 1911 — January 6, 2004) was an Armenian American artist.
Biography
Early life
Born of Armenian parents on April 14, 1911, in Kütahya, Western Anatolia, Ottoman Empire, Zorthian escaped through Europe with the remnants of his family to escape the Armenian Genocide, and arrived in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1923. He earned a Master of Fine Arts at Yale University (where he had a "full college scholarship to the Yale School of fine arts") and studied art in Italy in the 1930s. Returning to the United States during the Great Depression, he painted several massive murals, including 11 for the Tennessee State Capitol in 1938 which earned him the honorary title of "Colonel". In 1940, he painted the mural at the United States Post Office in St. Johnsville, New York, titled "Early St. Johnsville Pioneers."
World War II
During World War II, he served stateside in army intelligence and painted what he came to consider his masterpiece—a mural he titled The Phantasmagoria of Military Intelligence Training. His training at Camp Ritchie makes him one of many Ritchie Boys. His first marriage, to shaving cream heiress Betty Williams, ended in divorce but he gained the first acres of the Altadena ranch where he lived from 1945 until his death.
