Collections record Beta

Sketch - Mini Almy

1953-17-51

A pencil sketch on paper of a young girl. The young girl has shoulder-length hair and is wearing a colored, button-down, short-sleeved blouse. Only her left ear is visible and her face is tilted towards the left of the sketch. Her face is lightly shaded in with pencil. Initialed and dated on front right-hand corner: "AP 1941." On the back is written in large, cursive, pencil letters: "Mini Almy/AP." There are two very large lower-case letters in charcoal on the back of the sketch along with straight pencil lines and a pale pink paint splatter to the center left of the paper. Half of an "m" on the top and part of an "e" on the bottom of the paper are visible. Both letters are side-ways in relation to the label in pencil at the bottom.

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

1941

Overall Width 1'1.25"; Length 1'3.75"

• charcoal
• paper
• pencil