Collections record Beta

Collection Record Detail

Object Name

Sketch - Johnson Residence

Object Number

1953-17-55

Description

Pencil and charcoal sketch of ship, ocean and clouds drawn in red-pencil quadrille on board. Sketch is drawn in a box outlined in black ink. Written on back of board in black ink and blue pencil: ""Arrival of The White Man's Ship"/Thomas. A. Johnson Residence/@ Mount Vernon Place. Boston -/Reception Room Decorations./Austin Purves/1927/VI."

Comment

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.