Collections record Beta

Sketch - Anatomical

1953-17-73

Pencil and ink sketch on paper of two right hands and upper arm. right hands are depicted with their fingers curled upwards. One of the right hands is attached to an outstretched arm that is completed up to the shoulder. The second right hand is sketched directly above the first hand in the upper left corner of the paper. Initialed in bottom right corner and dated "4/22/49". The piece of paper on which the sketch is drawn is folded in half, with the sketch on one half of the paper. On the back of the sketch underneath the fold is written in black ink: "Study for arms + hands of Christ./A Purves 1949/Honesdale."

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

1949

Overall Width 18"; Length 11.5"

• pencil
• paper
• ink