Collections record Beta

Sketch - Greensboro, VT

1953-17-43

Pencil sketch of landscape on paper titled "Greensboro VT" on the bottom right hand edge of the paper. the sketch depicts a picket fence running in a line from a small hill in the background of the sketch to the right hand side of the foreground. There is one tree to the far left of the fence and a cluster of trees to the right of the fence towards the upper right hand corner of the paper. The shading of the surface of the ground appears to represent a grassy landscape. Initialed and dated 1931 on the bottom right hand side of the sketch.

See 1953-17-42 for similar landscape.

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

1931

Overall Width 1'3.5"; Length 10.125"

• paper
• pencil