Collections record Beta

Collection Record Detail

Object Name

Sketch - Santa Magdalene Grace Line Mosaic

Object Number

1953-17-5

Description

Sketch on matboard in pencil, ink and paint in blue, gold, red, and green. The sketch depicts various figures and objects in gold, green and red against a background of varying shades of blue. The blue background containing the objects and figures is bordered by a gray boarder which is then set against a background of white that fills up roughly 4/5ths of the sketch. There is a gray beam running across the lower half of the sketch. There is a list of notes on colors and numbers of colors in pencil on the right hand side of the front of the mat board. On the bottom left hand corner of the front of the mat board is the label in pencil "A DECK" and on the bottom right hand corner is a scale written in pencil: "1"=1'-0"." On the back is written in blue ink and pencil: "Sketch for mosaic/Santa Magdalene/Grace Line/1962."

Provenance

See: 1953-17-2, 1953-17-8 and 1953-17-9 for other designs for the Grace Line ships.

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.