Collections record Beta

Sketch - Landscape

1953-17-69

Watercolor sketch of nature-study. The artist depicts grasses, rocks (one of which is visible above the surface of the water), water and two fish swimming down the piece in muted colors. For water the artist uses a light gray color outlined with a very thin white line. The top left edge of the body of water depicts grass in a muted dark green, and the top right hand corner of the body of water has a small blotch of muted dark blue paint. The two fish are depicted next to each other outlined in dark gray swimming next to the rock. There is a small number 12 written in pencil on the top right hand corner of the sketch. Matted, 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

20th century

Overall Width 14.5"; Length 19"

• paper
• matboard
• watercolor
• pencil