Collections record Beta

Painting - Landscape, Lumberville, PA

1953-17-27

Double-sided sketch of barn scene done in paint and pencil on chipboard. The front appears to have a detailed sketch of a white house, a red barn and a smaller white barn next to it all alongside a narrow dirt road. The structures are surrounded by trees of varying shades of green in the background and to the left hand side of the painting. There is also green grass and blue sky. The back of the artwork depicts a less-detailed sketch of a red barn with blotches of green and blue in various shades that appear to be unfinished trees, grass and sky. On the back of the sketch is also written in pencil and surrounded by a box drawn in pencil: "Sketch near Lumberville/Pennsylvania, Austin Purves Jr./August 1919."

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

1919

Overall Width 1'2"; Length 10"

• pencil
• oil
• wood board