William Draper Portrait of an Old Man, ca. 1935

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Ancient & Ethnographic Art Through The Ages

By Artemis Gallery

Oct 22, 2020

Set Reminder 2020-10-22 10:00:00 2020-10-22 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Ancient & Ethnographic Art Through The Ages https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/artemis-gallery/ancient-ethnographic-art-through-the-ages-5850
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• Lot Description
  William Franklin Draper (American, 1912-2003). Study of an Older Model, oil on canvas, ca. 1935. Signed "WF Draper" at lower right. An early portrait by American artist William Draper, depicting an older gentleman, sitting outdoors with his hands placed upon his knees, looking directly at the viewer with a twinkle in his eyes and his white bearded mouth open as if telling a story to us about the good old days. He wears a dark grey wide-brimmed had, a matching vest, and a long sleeved golden beige shirt. Behind him is a multi-paned window - he is presumably sitting on a stoop of a home or building - and the leafy tree to his left suggests that it is a lovely spring or summer day. William Draper's family believes that this piece was painted in Provincetown, Massachusetts in 1931. Size: 30" L x 25.125" W (76.2 cm x 63.8 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
  
  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.
  
  #153502

  Condition

  Painting is in overall very good condition. Signed "WF Draper" at lower right. Canvas verso has darkened with age. Some fraying to side edges of the canvas. A couple of nails used to secure canvas to stretchers are missing, but most are there. In those areas where they are missing there is a bit of loss/tears to the canvas, but these do not take away from the painted composition. A bit of wear to peripheries of painting as shown. "Old Model" handwritten on stretcher. Draper Estate stamp on stretcher.
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