1970 W. Draper Painting - Cypress Swamp, North Carolina

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Ancient / Ethnographic From Around The World

By Artemis Gallery

Jan 21, 2021

Set Reminder 2021-01-21 10:00:00 2021-01-21 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Ancient / Ethnographic From Around The World https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/artemis-gallery/ancient-ethnographic-from-around-the-world-6316
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• Lot Description
  William Franklin Draper (American, 1912-2003). "Cypress Swamp, Charlotte , North Carolina" - oil on canvas, 1970s. Signed on lower right. A large, mesmerizing painting of a grove of Cypress trees in North Carolina surrounded by a gorgeous atmospheric mist. All is delineated in Draper's signature neo-Impressionist style in a gorgeous palette of spring green, dusky blue, lavendar, slate gray, umber, sienna and white hues. North Carolina Bald Cypresses along the Black River are among the oldest trees in the world and provide scientists with a window onto climates that date back thousands of years. A fabulous painting in which Draper depicted these marvelous ANCIENT trees. Set in custom framing with a brass plate inscribed with the artist's name below. Size: painting itself measures 36.25" W x 36.25" H (92.1 cm x 92.1 cm); 45.25" W x 45.25" H (114.9 cm x 114.9 cm) framed
  
  To learn more about the ancient Cypress trees of North Carolina, read Jim Morrison's article in Smithsonian Magazine in which he describes how two conservationists visiting Charlotte, North Carolina came "upon the oldest living trees in the U.S. east of California and some of the oldest in the world. Testing would later reveal that one of them is at least 2,624 years old, making it alive when Nebuchadnezzar II built the Hanging Gardens in Babylon, when the Normans invaded England, and when Shakespeare first set quill to paper." ("North Carolina Bald Cypresses Are Among the World’s Oldest Trees" - May 9, 2019)
  
  William Draper's career spanned seven decades and his subjects included a portrait of John F. Kennedy that hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C. based upon an oil sketch for which the president sat in 1962. Draper was actually the only artist who painted JFK from life. Draper showed at Knoedler, the Graham Gallery, Portraits, Inc., the Far Gallery, The Findlay Galleries (New York, NY) and the Robert C. Vose Galleries (Boston, MA). His work has been included in shows at the National Portrait Gallery and the Corcoran Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.), The National Academy of Design (New York, NY), The Boston Museum of Fine Arts, (Boston, MA) the Fogg Art Museum, (one of the Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, MA), the National Gallery, (London), Salon de la Marine (Paris) and in museums in Australia. He also taught at the Art Students League of New York, and received a lifetime achievement award from the Portrait Society of America in 1999.
  
  More on the artist's background: William Franklin Draper was born in Hopedale, Massachusetts on December 24, 1912. A child prodigy, he studied classical piano at Harvard University. He later changed his focus to fine art and studied with Charles Webster Hawthorne and Henry Hensche in Provincetown, Rhode Island. Draper also attended the National Academy of Design in New York and the Cape Cod School of Art in Massachusetts. Then he traveled to Spain and studied with Harry Zimmerman, moved on to France and attended the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere. In 1937, he moved to Boston to study sculpture with George Demetrius and also studied with Jon Corbino in beautiful Rockport, Massachusetts. In 1942, Draper joined the Navy and served as a combat artist when stationed on the Aleutian Islands and in the South Pacific. He observed and painted battle scenes on Bougainville, Guam, Saipan, and other locations, as well as genre scenes of soldiers who were not engaged in combat but rather at work and at play. National Geographic magazine reproduced 25 of his war images in four issues in 1944. In 1945, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. organized a group exhibition of works by five official war artists, including Draper. That same year the Metropolitan Museum of Art included Draper in an exhibition entitled, ''The War Against Japan.'' Draper was also featured in a PBS television show about combat artists entitled, "They Drew Fire" in May of 2000. After the war, Draper opened a studio on Park Avenue in New York City and continued to not only paint, but also play classical and jazz piano.
  
  Provenance: The William F. Draper Collection, New York City, USA, acquired via descent from the late William Franklin Draper (1912-2003), an accomplished American artist whose career spanned seven decades. Known as the "Dean of American Portraiture," William Draper was the only artist to paint President John F. Kennedy from life, and his oeuvre includes marvelous landscapes from his world travels, military paintings as he was one of only seventeen Combat Artists in WWII, and portraits of illustrious individuals.
  
  All items legal to buy/sell under U.S. Statute covering cultural patrimony Code 2600, CHAPTER 14, and are guaranteed to be as described or your money back.
  
  A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany all winning bids.
  
  We ship worldwide and handle all shipping in-house for your convenience.
  
  #152828

  Condition

  Painting is in excellent condition. Signed on lower right. The frame has very light wear commensurate with age but is also overall in excellent condition.
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