William Draper Painting - "Enquire Within" (Nude) 1950

About Auction

Live

Fall Antiquities & Ethnographic Art Auction

By Artemis Gallery

Oct 21, 2021

Set Reminder 2021-10-21 10:00:00 2021-10-21 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Fall Antiquities & Ethnographic Art Auction https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/artemis-gallery/fall-antiquities-ethnographic-art-auction-7725
Ancient art from Egypt, Greece, Italy and the Near East, as well as Asian, Fossils, Pre-Columbian, Native American, African / Tribal / Oceanic, Fine art, and much more! All categories, all price ranges... all legally acquired and guaranteed to be as described or your money back. Artemis Gallery info@artemisgallery.com

View Full Catalog (341)

• Lot Description
  William Franklin Draper (American, 1912-2003). "Enquire Within" oil on canvas board, 1950. Signed "W.F. Draper" with the title above at the lower right. A voluptuous female nude by William Draper with a clever title offering an invitation to "Enquire Within" painted in red at the lower right. Given that Draper includes glimpses of canvases to the left and right in the composition, the setting may be his studio or perhaps a classroom at the Art Student's League in New York City. The model sits with her curvaceous body leaning a bit toward her left, her legs bent at the knees and overlapping one another, and her hands placed on the carpet below, as she gazes ahead with her beautiful features - large, expressive, doe-like eyes, ruby red lips, and brunette updo. In addition to capturing her beautiful body, Draper has accentuated her soft flesh and elegant form with the perfect combination of light and shadow. Size: 24" L x 20" W (61 cm x 50.8 cm)
  
  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. This clock belonged to Princess Margaret Draper Boncompagni - William Draper's aunt who was an American heiress and married Prince Andrea Boncompagni in the 1920s.
  
  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.
  
  PLEASE NOTE: Due to recent increases of shipments being seized by Australian & German customs (even for items with pre-UNESCO provenance), we will no longer ship most antiquities and ancient Chinese art to Australia & Germany. For categories of items that are acceptable to ship to Australia or Germany, please contact us directly or work with your local customs brokerage firm.
  
  Display stands not described as included/custom in the item description are for photography purposes only and will not be included with the item upon shipping.
  
  #152308

  Condition

  Signed "W.F. Draper" with the title above, all in red at the lower right. Draper Estate stamp on the verso. Tiny perforations at the edges of the left and right sides.
• Shipping Info

  • All shipping is handled in-house for your convenience. Your invoice from Artemis Gallery will include shipping calculation instructions. If in doubt, please inquire BEFORE bidding for estimated shipping costs for individual items.

• Buyer's Premium
  • 26.50 %