?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
WILLIAM A. HARPER (1873 - 1910) Two small landscapes.
Untitled (Farm with Large Trees), oil on board. 150x200 mm; 5 7/8x7 7/8inches. Signed in oil, lower left. * Untitled (Road to a Village), oil on panel (back of a cigar box). 122x190 mm; 4 5/8x7 1/2 inches.
Provenance: private collection, Illinois.
William Harper was born in Cayuga, Canada. His family moved to Illinois in 1885, and Harper attended the Art Institute of Chicago from 1895-1901, working as a nightwatch man and janitor to pay for his tuition. He studied in Paris from 1903-1905 at the Académie Julian. In 1905, Harper earned the Municipal Art League's blue ribbon at the Art Institute of Chicago for nine of his paintings. On a return trip to France from 1907-08, Harper studied with Henry Ossawa Tanner. Harper's career was cut short when he died of tuberculosis only a few years later at the age of 36. The Art Institute held a memorial exhibition in Harper's honor, showcasing 60 of his works. His paintings are found today in the collections of Tuskegee University and Dr. Walter O. Evans. Barnwell p. 157; Kennedy p. 119.
