Collections record Beta

Scale Model - Mosaic for the Chapel of the American Battle Monument at Draguignan, France

1953-17-9 a,b

Three-dimensional scale model of three mosaics, depicting three sketches for mosaic designs. A - Mosaic sketch attached to a concave wooden backing piece at the back of the model. The sketch here depicts a large central hooded figure in white, gray and pink holding a limp figure of a person dressed in a green long-sleeved shirt and green pants. These two central figures are surrounded on either side by a total of six smaller figures. To the left-hand side are five figures in green, white, yellow and purple respectively. Three of the figures appear to be bowing their heads while two figures behind them embrace. To the right of the central figures is one figure with an orange and gold halo holding a golden staff with a cross at the end of it in his right hand. The figure is wearing a blue tunic with a gold cross in the center and a blue and red cape behind him. There is a square of red beside this figure and behind him is a structure in gold and brown with spires sticking up. The mosaic sketch is surrounded at left, right and bottom with a thin boarder in gold and black. Boarder is thicker at the bottom of the sketch, painted in gold, white and back in three sections and continuing onto the two wooden side panels. The two wooden panels to the left and right side of the mosaic sketch also have thin boarders on the outside edges of each painted in gold, white and black of the same thickness as the boarders on the left and right edges of the sketch. There is a hinged piece that opens at the top of the mounted sketch which depicts a semi-circle outlined in black paint and filled in with various shades of white, blue and pink. This semi-circle is set against a gray background and there is a white stripe along the bottom edge of the semi-circle. Directly in front of the sketch is what appears to be a small scale wooden altar piece in gray. To the left and right side of the concave mosaic sketch are wooden boxes extending towards the front of the model with three rectangular openings separated by four wooden columns. The inside of the model is painted a dark shade of white while the outside of the model is painted a light shade of black. B - Detachable second piece of the model with wooden boards connected to each other by a hinge. This piece was intended by the artist to be set over the top and front side of the model so as to show what the chapel would look like with the artist’s three mosaics inside. The largest rectangular wooden board of the detachable piece, intended to be the ceiling piece, depicts a uniform disbursement of small gold stars set against a light blue background. The light blue background has two lighter blue strips on the left and right hand sides which provide a background for a thin row of small gold dots. The left and right hand sides of the board have a thin boarder with a thin white design running through it. The boarder on either side has an alternating blue and red background and is itself bordered on either side in a thin strip of gold paint. On the smaller rectangular wooden board, intended to depict the wall opposite the larger concave mosaic at the back of the model, depicts the seal of the United States of America in brown, yellow, blue, green, gray and white with a faint white line outlining the seal. Below the seal is a paragraph in capital golden lettering and symbols underlined faintly in pencil that reads: “HERE[]WE AND ALL WHO SHALL HERE AFTER/LIVE IN FREEDOM : WILL BE REMINDED : /THAT TO THESE MEN AND THEIR COMDRADCE/OF ALL THE ALLIES : WE OWE A DEBT : TO BE/PAID WITH GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE OF[]/THEIR SACRIFICE : AND WITH THE HIGH RE[]/SOLVE THAT THE CAUSE FOR WHICH THEY DI-/ED : SHALL LIVE ETERNALLY[].” The seal and gold lettering are both set against a darker blue background than the larger wooden panel this panel is attached to. To the left and right hand sides of this smaller wooden panel are slightly elevated strips of wood painted teal. On the outside edge of each elevated wooden strip is a thin gold and black boarder. Next to these elevated wooden strips are sections of largely unpainted wood with remnants of light blue paint.

See: 1953-17-14 to 1953-17-20. Model was found with label added not by artist himself in green marker on an 8x6” sheet of paper secured to the center base with two pins on the top left and right hand corners of the sheet of paper respectively. The label read: “I. 976-6478/Litchfield Artists Collection/Designs for Mosaic Decorations/BY/ Austin Purves JR./For the Redrodos, West Wall/ and Ceiling of the Chapel of the American/Battle Monument at Draguinan, France/Scale: one half inch equals one foot/Architect: Toombs and Company, Atlanta, Georg./Donor: Mr. Austin Purves, Jr., 1953.” After the yellowing label was removed from the model, a rectangular white mark lighter than the rest of the inside of the model was found along with two pin holes where the pins had attached the label.

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

1953

Overall Height 14.5"; Width 23"; Length 26"

• metal
• wood
• pastel
• pencil
• paint
• paper