Austin Montgomery Purves, Jr.

Austin Montgomery Purves, Jr.

Architect, Artist and Director of the Day & Night Schools at Cooper Union

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_M._Purves_Jr.
• Find A Grave Memorial ID # 199537080

March 24, 1977. New York Times

Austin M. Purves, an artist and former director of the Cooper Union Art School, died last Thursday at the Charlotte Hungerford Hospital in Torrington, Connecticut. He was 76 years old.

Mr. Purves was best known for mosaic work and fresco painting, although his other media included sculpture and charcoal drawing.

From 1931 until 1938, he was director of the Cooper Union Art School. He also taught at Yale University and Bennington [Vermont] College.

Mr. Purves attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine arts and studied in Europe.

Surviving are his wife, the former Ellen Wood; two daughters, Ellen Thurneyssen and Joan Adams, and a son, Oliver.

April 13, 1972. The Litchfield Enquirer

"Last of Masters" Describes Purves. By Alice Rogers

"He is the last of the masters," said William Warren, director of the Litchfield Historical Society Museum, of Austin Purves Jr., Litchfield artist whose work is on display at the museum. He compared Mr. Purves with great masters of the past because, like them, his talents include sculpture in several media, drawing and painting with and on various materials. He has worked with filmy fabrics and with limestone. He is also a musician. "He has never narrowed his talents to specialization," said Director Warren.

Another comparison is his work in the service of religion. His work is in churches from Duluth, Minnesota. To Draguignan, France. A breath-catching cartoon, 25 by 18 feet covers much of the north wall of the Museum's Liggett room. It could be called The Pieta, which it suggests — Mary holding her dead son. This is the full-scale drawing in charcoal on manila paper upon which hundreds of tiny pieces of color glass were affixed in his Paris studio, as the model for the mosaic background of the American Battle Monument in Draguignan, France. He designed the entire chapel in mosaics. It is the burial place of 900 American soldiers of World War I.

Samples of work done for United States and Grace Line ships are on east and west walls of the room. One is an example of cast aluminum. Drawings are so realistic they appear to be three dimensional. The delicacy of landscapes, trees and water, done with charcoal on paper, have the airy free look of Japanese prints. Several flower prints, among Mr. Warren's favorites, were rescued from old notebooks. Another rescue is an early morning activity scene of East Morris when it was a pretty crossroads. "With every different type of work he did," said Mr. Warren, "Austin Purves was always himself. It originated with him. He did not follow a popular trend in art. He copied no one." Except for a few pictures, which belong to Mr. Warren, including a pencil sketch of a woman kneeling, the entire exhibition belongs to the Museum. The kneeling woman is the artist's wife who modeled for his work on a great altar piece in an American church.

Mr. Purves autographed the sketch for Mr. Warren's mother, a longtime friend and student. Churches, libraries, universities, hospitals, commercial and industrial buildings in nine states have commissioned his work. He is not only an artist but also a teacher. For seven years he was the director of Cooper Union, NY, organizing its professional school to give degrees in architecture, painting, sculpture and graphics. The exhibition will continue for several weeks; it is free to the public.

March 24, 1977. The New York Times

Austin M. Purves 1900-1977

Austin M. Purves, an artist and former director of the Cooper Union Art School, died last Thursday at the Charlotte Hungerford Hospital in Litchfield, Conn. He was 76 years old. Mr. Purves was best known for mosaic work and fresco painting, although his other media included sculpture and charcoal drawing.

From 1931 until 1938, he was director of the Cooper Union Art School. He also taught at Yale University and Bennington College. Mr. Purves attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and studied in Europe. Surviving are his wife, the former Ellen Wood; two daughters, Ellen Thurneyssen and Joan Adams, and a son, Oliver.

March 17, 1977. Litchfield Enquirer.

Memorial Services Held for Austin M. Purves, Jr. 76, artist and creator of mosaics and frescos, were held this afternoon at St. Michael's Episcopal Church. Mr. Purves died Tuesday morning, March 15 at Charlotte Hungerford Hospital after a brief illness. A Litchfield resident for almost 40 years,

Mr. Purves maintained a studio in a converted barn behind his home on Wheeler Road. His works include the frescos for the 13th century church in Montarlot, France, for which he received an award from the Department of Beaux Arts of France and an honorable mention from the Architectural League of New York. He designed the entire chapel in mosaic for the American Battle Monument in Draguignun, France, a mosaic column for Colgate University, and a mosaic chapel which is located in the east apse of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington DC.

He was commissioned to do architectural paintings for the Folger Memorial Library in Washington DC in 1930-31 and portraits for the Temple of Religion at the New York World's Fair in 1939. His sculptures, which include metal work, were executed in the main stairwells of the SS America and the SS United States. He completed the spandrels for three building and stone sculptures on an additional three buildings at West Point during the 1960s. Mr. Purves studied drawing and painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the Julian Academy in Paris.

He had taught at Yale University and Bennington College and had been the director of the Day and Night Art Schools at Cooper Union where he subsequently served as a member and chairman of its Advisory Council. Mr. Purves was born in Philadelphia, December 31, 1900, a son of the late Austin Montgomery Purves and Betsey (Coleman) Purves.

He was a member of the Century Club of New York, the Litchfield Sanctum Club, The Architectural League of New York, the Mural Painters' Society and a former member of the Board of Directors of the Hartford Art School.

He is survived by his wife, Ellen (Wood) Purves; two daughters, Ellen Thurneyssen of Exeter, NH and Joan Adams of Litchfield; a son, Oliver Purves of Minneapolis, Minn., and five grandchildren.

More at Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_M._Purves_Jr.

NOTE: Dr. Temple Grandin is his grandniece