65 Sharp Street
Hingham, MA 02043
United States
Copley Fine Art Auctions is the world's leading American sporting art auction company. Located in Hingham, MA, Copley specializes in antique decoys and 19th- and 20th-century American, sporting, and wildlife paintings. Principal Stephen O'Brien Jr., a fourth-generation sportsman with a refined colle...Read more
Two ways to bid:
Price | Bid Increment |
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$0 | $50 |
$1,000 | $100 |
$2,500 | $250 |
$5,000 | $500 |
$10,000 | $1,000 |
$25,000 | $2,500 |
$50,000 | $5,000 |
Jul 25, 2015 - Jul 26, 2015
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. 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.
Woodcock Hunting, with its boldly painted hunters, perfectly rendered cover, and sense of motion created by the hunters, dogs, and woodcock, demonstrates Ripley at the height of his artistry.
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