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Founded in 2005, Copley Fine Art Auctions is a boutique auction house specializing in antique decoys and American, sporting, and wildlife paintings. Over the course of the last two decades, the firm has set auction records for not only individual decoy makers, but also entire carving regions. Copley...Read more
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Feb 12, 2015 - Feb 13, 2015
Hunting in New England, 1938
signed and dated "A. Lassell Ripley 1938" lower right
watercolor, 17 1/2 by 24 3/4 in.
Born in Wakefield, Massachusetts, Aiden Lassell Ripley was the son of a Boston Symphony Orchestra musician. From an early age he excelled at music, but he soon discovered a deeper interest in painting. By his mid-teens, Ripley was committed to a career in art, commuting into Boston to take classes. After returning from service in World War I, he attended the Boston Museum School where he studied with the country's top artists, including Philip Leslie Hale (1865-1934) and Frank W. Benson (1862-1951).
Ripley was awarded a Paige Traveling Fellowship to study in Europe. While abroad, he painted watercolors "en plein air" in North Africa, France, and Holland. On his return, in 1925, he was elected to the prestigious Guild of Boston Artists. His work focused on the New England countryside as well as depictions of city life and railroad commuting scenes. The Great Depression, however, limited the sales potential for these works. Therefore, following a successful one-man show in 1930 of his sporting art, Ripley decided to change tack and specialize in hunting, fishing, and outdoor scenes as subjects.
Along with his contemporary, Ogden Pleissner (1905-1983), Ripley exemplified the life of a successful sporting artist. Collectors of Ripley’s sporting art endorsed his numerous trips to the salmon rivers of New Brunswick and the quail plantations of Georgia, where the artist indulged his passion for hunting and fishing while recording material he would use in his art.
In this work, Ripley captures the atmosphere and lively colors of "Hunting in New England" by employing his masterful brushstrokes and deep knowledge of the subject matter. The lone hunter and his dog hike through the rolling hills, in search of their quarry, at one with the landscape.
Provenance: Private Collection, Massachusetts
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