Kent Hagerman, Lakeland. Etching, Florida Cattle Empire.
Kent Hagerman served in France during World War I where poison gas affected his lungs. After recovering at a veteran’s hospital in Denver, Colorado, Hagerman operated an engraving company in Denver and began a art career as a newspaper and magazine illustrator. He moved to Lakeland in 1933 and began producing a line of fine etchings of the Florida scene. Hagerman never dated his work but early etchings were signed, Will Kay Hagerman, and later, after 1940, Kent Hagerman.
Hagerman worked for the Tampa Tribune in 1950. Mass Brothers Department Store in Tampa used Hagerman scenes of the Gasparilla pirate invasion for its advertisements. A sculptor, Hagerman was commissioned to create bronze bas reliefs of famous physicians including Dr. Herman Watson, founder of the Watson Clinic in Lakeland; Ludd Spivey, former president of Florida Southern College; Joker Marchant; and baseball star, Al Kaline. Hagerman lectured on art at the University of Florida and at Florida Southern College. During the Lakeland Centenial in 1985 the City of Lakeland and Polk County paid tribute to him with a traveling exhibit of his work. The introduction to the exhibit reads in part, “Kent Hagerman’s love of his adopted city, county and surrounding community is clearly documented in these very sensitive prints. Whether the subject represents the sport of hunting, fishing, football or water skiing, the work of syrup making, cypress logging or moss gathering, the fun of relaxing in the back yard, or on the Suwannee River, or the simple documenting of important landmarks; these Hagerman prints provide a fitting tribute to the state of Florida and Lakeland’s Centenial Celebration.”
Born: 1893, Ohio.
Died: 1978, Lakeland.
Education: Cleveland School of Art; The Sorbonne, Paris.
Exhibits: Works of Kent Hagerman, Lakeland City Centennial Celebration, 1985.
Directory: Listed in Lakeland City Directory in 1945, 1952, 1954 as a commercial artist with studio at 630 Chester and in 1954 at 2727 Cambridge Avenue.
