Collections record Beta

Sketch - Santa Magdalena Sketch for Mosaic

1953-17-6

Sketch on mat board of gold and green figures set against a background of various shades of red. This rectangular red background is bordered with a thin gray boarder against a white background. There is a thin gray bar running across the lower half of the sketch. What appears to be a penciled-in grid divides up the rectangular colored part of the sketch. On the bottom left hand corner in pencil is written: "SUN DECK". On the bottom right hand corner is written: "SCALE 1"-1'-0"." On the back of the mat board in blue ink and pencil is written: "Sketch for Mosaic/Santa Magdalena/Grace Line/1962."

See 1953-17-5 for other Santa Magdalena Grace Line sketch for mosaic (1962).

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

1962

Overall Width 10"; Length 11.5"

• ink
• matboard
• pencil
• tape
• oil