Feb 13, 2014 - Sale 2338

Sale 2338 - Lot 16

Price Realized: $ 6,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 7,000 - $ 10,000
WILLIAM A. HARPER (1873 - 1910)
Untitled (French Pasture with Trees).

Oil on thick cardstock, circa 1907-08. 305x394 mm; 12x15 1/2 inches. Signed in oil, lower left.

Provenance: private collection, Chicago.

William A. Harper likely painted this beautiful landscape on his second trip to Paris when he studied with Henry Ossawa Tanner. Like Bannister and Needham, William Harper was also born in Canada. His family moved from Cayuga to Illinois in 1885, and Harper attended the Art Institute of Chicago from 1895-1901, working as a night watchman and janitor to pay for his tuition. He studied in Paris first from 1903-1905 at the Académie Julian. In 1905, the talented Harper earned the Municipal Art League's blue ribbon at the Art Institute of Chicago for nine of his paintings. 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.