Collections record Beta

Sketches - Tomkins Portrait

1953-17-64

Three pen and ink sketches, each with a figure of a woman standing off to the left hand side of the sketch. On the back is written in black type on a separate white paper that is attached to the sketch paper: "SOME PRELIMINARY SKETCHES FOR A PORTRAIT OF/MRS. CALVIN TOMKINS, AND FLOWER AND TREE STUDIES/FOR SURROUNDING ELEMENTS IN THE PORTRAIT." Initialed on front, no date.

Born in Philadelphia, Austin M. Purves Jr. (1900-1977) lived in the East Litchfield section of Litchfield for the last 40 years of his life. Purves studied art at the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts and the Académie Julian in Paris, France, before opening a studio in New York, where he was director of the day and night schools at the Cooper Union. After moving to Litchfield, Purves taught art at Bennington College and at Yale Art School and was a member of the Architectural League of New York, the National Society of Mural Painters, and the (then newly-formed) Hartford Art School. Over the course of his career Purves did commission work for R. H. Macy & Co., the Folger Memorial Library in Washington, D.C., the American Battle Monument in Draguignan, France, the 1939 World’s Fair, various churches, ship lines and private clients, among others. In addition to commission work, Purves drew primarily from people and nature for his own personal sketches and paintings.

• Purves, Austin, 1900-1977

c. 1932

Overall Width 1'2"; Length 5.75"

• oil
• ink
• paper
• watercolor
• pencil
• acrylic