Jane Nehf Haslem

Jane Nehf Haslem, 85, a Terre Haute native, Washington, D.C. Gallery Owner, and Pioneer in Art Gallery Websites, passed on January 13, 2020, surrounded by family. She was born in Knoxville, TN where her father was a TVA civil engineer. She primarily grew up in Terre Haute where she was a high school cheerleader, attendant to football queen, and yearbook editor, among others. She was a member of Alpha Phi sorority at Indiana’s DePauw University with a major in art. In 1955, she married her high school boyfriend, John A. Haslem, during Joe College Weekend at Duke University.

In 1960-61, Jane opened her first gallery above the barbershop in Chapel Hill, NC, home of the University of North Carolina. Her husband originally rented the space for her art studio and room to teach children. This evolved into the first commercial gallery in the State of North Carolina. The initial exhibition featured luminary printmaker Leonard Baskin and her first customer was singer James Taylor’s mother. In 1965, the family moved to Madison, WI and Jane opened a gallery in a commercial space near the University of Wisconsin. Faculty art was often featured. In 1969, the family moved to College Heights Estates close by the University of Maryland campus. Jane then opened a gallery in Georgetown at 1669 Wisconsin Avenue. One exhibition featured works by legend Edward Hopper. The gallery then moved to P Street NW to an ideal spacious street level location in an apartment building. Her exhibition of Garry Trudeau’s original drawings for “Doonesbury” drew several thousand people to the opening and sold out. The next move was to 7th Street NW to a building near the National Gallery that housed several galleries. Finally, the gallery moved to DuPont Circle to an 1886 6,000 square feet town house on Hillyer Place NW near the Phillips Collection. The house had been the first location of the Holton-Arms School, and included the gallery, living quarters, and her professor husband’s research office.

The gallery specialized in American art of the last half of the 20th century, and included paintings, prints, drawings, and other works on paper by over 100 artists. The gallery was well known for its in-depth collection of prints by those artists who revived printmaking in the U.S. following World War II, such as Leonard Baskin, Gabor Peterdi, and Mauricio Lasansky.

Jane pursued her dream of creating an international market place for Jane Haslem Gallery and other art dealers. By 1990, she was already applying digital imaging. In 1995, she launched Artline.com that pioneered a new way of showing and marketing gallery art. Some 675 top-tier galleries from around the world were featured on the site.

Jane was active in numerous art and art related organizations, such as Art Table in New York. She was a charter member of International Fine Art Print Dealers in New York, a founder/officer of the Art Dealers Association of Greater Washington, and a long-standing member/consultant of the Washington Print Club. She also contributed by reviewing art gifts donated to the White House and by speaking on art and Artline.com to many organizations, such as as University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Finance. In 2016, Washington’s Cosmos Club invited her to exhibit and speak about her collection of artist self-portraits in prints. The prints now rest in the collection of the Yale University Art Gallery.

Jane was married for over 64 years to John A. Haslem, University of Maryland emeritus finance professor. Their three children are John A., Jr., James R., and Jeffrey A. They include a Ph.D. academic director, an Ivy League lawyer financial consultant to large corporations, and CIO of a leading technology company. Locally, John, Jr. holds two degrees from Purdue and Jeffrey also graduated from Purdue. There are nine grandchildren.

Jane’s family will attend a private burial in Roselawn Memorial Park. Roselawn Funeral Home assisted with the arrangements. Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.roselawnfuneralhome.net