Collections record Beta

Collection Record Detail

Object Name

Painting - "Fish Story"

Object Number

2023-19-1

Description

Acrylic on canvas board painting showing an abstract fishing scene. Six figures (fishermen) standing in the water along the bottom edge, with the water reflecting the colors of the scenes above. Above the fishermen is an underwater scene showing a group of river trout underwater, with aquatic plants. At the top-left is a single trout jumping from the water, with a thin fishing line extending from its mouth to the right side of the painting. The remainder of the top half of the painting is finished in grey, green, yellow, and brown hues. There is a canvas nameplate adhered to the reverse, with black text "A. PURVES." Underneath is a paper label with text, "Fish Story/Brook Trout Sequence/Designed and Copyrighted by/Austin Purves Jr, 1948/Litchfield, Connecticut." Framed in thin wood frame with gilt liner.

Provenance

The painting descended in the artist's family. The family believes it was created as concept art for a film in the 1940s, which was never produced. The painting is part of a series, with others remaining in possession of the family.

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.