Charley Harper’s bright, cheerful artwork depicts the natural world with crisp linear joy. His designs are known for their whimsy and graphic angular compositions. Born in West Virginia in 1922, Harper trained at the Art Academy of Cincinnati and studied color theory with visiting professor Josef Albers. He fell in love with a fellow art student named Edith McKee and after both interrupted their studies to aid the war effort, the pair married in 1947.
Upon graduation Harper started working at Schaten Studio where he learned how to silkscreen and gained fluency creating boldly linear commercial art designs. Harper’s commercial work included illustrations for The Golden Book of Biology, Betty Crocker’s Dinner for Two cookbook, and a series of covers for the Ford Times Magazine. The popularity of his illustrations spurred the creation of a silkscreen business and Harper continued to draw wildly imaginative nature designs for the rest of his life. Ironically, Harper preferred to mainly work indoors using guidebooks as visual references. Many of his illustrations included a deadpan accompanying essay inspired by the writings of E.B. White. His commissions included posters for the National Park Service as well as many wildlife conservation groups.
In an interview cited in 1977 promotional literature for the Frame House Gallery, Harper described his style: “When I look at a wildlife or nature subject, I don’t see the feathers in the wings, I just count the wings. I see exciting shapes, color combinations, patterns, textures, fascinating behavior and endless possibilities for making interesting pictures. I regard the picture as an ecosystem in which all the elements are interrelated, interdependent, perfectly balanced, without trimming or unutilized parts; and herein lies the lure of painting; in a world of chaos, the picture is one small rectangle in which the artist can create an ordered universe….
I don’t try to put everything in, I try to leave everything out….
Remember that I didn’t start out to paint a bird – the bird already existed. I started out to paint a picture of a bird, a picture which didn’t exist before I came along, a picture which gives me a chance to share with you my thoughts about the bird. Once you accept this seemingly simplistic but really quite profound premise, you will appreciate the many varied approaches to the making of pictures, all of which start where realism leaves off, but all of which require an understanding of realism for their successful execution.”
Harper
passed away on June 10, 2007. His work has received renewed critical acclaim and is the subject of a recent monograph by designer Todd Oldham titled Charley Harper: An Illustrated Life.
Additional Charley Harper Resources:
The Harper family website
A 2006 interview with the artist
A 2011 article about Harper’s life and work with photographs of his studio
In our November 19 Antique and Fine Arts Auction we will be offering a Liberty & Co. "Cymric" sterling spoon likely designed by the noted Manx artist Archibald Knox. The spoon commemorates the Coronation of Edward VII with a Birmingham date mark for 1901 and is marked L & Co. Cymric. The round bowl and handle end have openwork Celtic knot designs and the bowl has a crown over the letters AC, over E.R. VII. The spoon is 6 1/2" long, 2.6 standard or 2.37 troy oz and has a $500-800 auction estimate.
In our November 19th Antique and Fine Arts Auction we will be offering a wonderful selection of eight vintage Hermès scarves. The first Hermès scarf was introduced in 1928. A scarf factory was built in 1937 in Lyon, France where Hermès workers spun raw Chinese silk and wove it into thick fabric that would be screen-printed with colors from an array of over 200,000 vegetable dyes. Each color required a month to dry after application. Hermès scarves grew to attain status as a coveted fashion accessory favored by stars such as Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn. Two new scarf collections are manufactured each year and the scarves remain one of the company's most popular products. Over 2,500 designs have been created since 1937, many featuring equestrian themes. Fashion writer Nadine Coledo has recently completed a book titled The Hermès Scarf: History and Mystique.
On November 19th we will be offering two Mark Twain letters to Mrs. A. Reeves Jackson along with 1867 photographs of Mark Twain, Dr. and Mrs. A Reeves Jackson, and an extensive collection of Mark Twain memoriabilia. Mrs. A. Reeves Jackson was the wife of Twain's good friend Dr. Abraham Reeves Jackson. In 1867 Twain sailed on a cruise of the "Quaker City" as a reporter providing coverage for the "Alta California." Jackson was serving as the ship's doctor and was featured as a character in Twain's subsequent book "The Innocents Abroad." The cruise was also the site where the future Mrs. Jackson met both Twain and Dr. Jackson. Julia Newell Jackson was a reporter prior to her marriage in 1871, and she was also on board providing coverage for a sponsoring newspaper. 
cerely loved, + whose place none can fill as he filled it.
19th Antique and Fine Art Auction we will be offering a unique historical artifact from the University of Virginia. Lot 1186 is a 19th century folk art game board from the University of Virginia's Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity Delta Chapter. The board is colorfully painted and marked on the verso with UVA and the symbols for the fraternity. The game board is 15 3/4" high, 18 1/2" wide, 1" deep and has a $500-1000 auction estimate.
blad (1918-2006) was an influential and prolific Danish designer. Wiinblad was born in Copenhagen and trained at the city’s Royal Academy of Arts. His designs frequently featured smiling figures in old-fashioned garb rendered in a delicate linear style. Heavily inspired by folktales (even producing illustrations for a Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale), his work retained hints of folk culture’s whimsy and strangeness.