Collections record Beta

Photograph - Torrington

1953-17-47

Black and white photograph of Torrington. There is a grid in red pencil on the top-center portion of the photograph. On the back is written in black ink, "Photo taken by Rubens Studio - Torrington/for city part of Honesdale Reredos/Austin Purves Jr./From top of Charlotte Hungerford Hospital." 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.

• Rubens Studio

c.1949

Overall Width 1'1.875"; Length 10.875"

• photograph
• ink