Christopher Murphy Jr. (1902-1973) American, Watercolor on Paper Landscape.
Depicts a stunning mountain forest. Framed. Attribution written in pen on the back of the frame: "Ashville, N.C. 1930, Christopher Murphy." The date and the style indicate the piece was done by Murphy Jr. rather than Sr., as by then the elder artist was in his final years of life and did not travel much, and the heavier brush stroke and more modern color palette fits with Murphy Jr. as well.
Condition: Spotting on mat.
Overall Size: 28 1/4 x 23 1/4 in.
Sight Size: 18 3/4 x 12 3/4 in.
Frame Thickness: 1 1/2 in.
Christopher Aristide Desbouillons Murphy (best known by his artist name Christopher Murphy Jr.) was born in Savannah, Georgia on December 28th, 1902 to Lucile Desbouillons and Christopher Patrick Hussey Murphy, both well-known artists in Savannah. Art was a constant presence in the Murphy home, and with ample resources and references he began to study seriously at the age of ten, receiving initial instruction from his parents as well as Hardesty Gilmore Maratta, a visiting artist and inventor of the Maratta Theory of Color. Murphy graduated in 1921 from the Benedictine Military School, then attended the Art Students League in New York City off and on from 1921 until 1930. During his time there he studied life drawing with George Bridgman, painting and composition with F. V. DuMond, portraiture with Henry R. Rittenberg, and etching with Joseph Pennell. Murphy was also intensely interested in architecture, and in 1922 he studied design with the architect Lloyd Warren, who was the director of the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design in New York City. In 1925 he was awarded a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Fellowship. In the 1930s he took classes offered by the Savannah Art Club at the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences with local artist Hilda Belcher and visiting artists Adolphe Blondheim, William Chadwick, and Eliot Clark. His etchings and portraits won awards, and his work was widely exhibited, appearing at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, England, the National Academy of Design, the Brooklyn Society of Etchers, and the New York Watercolor Club. Intrigued by both progress and neglect, Murphy visited deserted historic plantations with crumbling outbuildings and wandered into rural areas outside the city, drawing whatever he saw, creating more than 250 etchings and drypoints. In 1929 he gathered nineteen locally prominent artists together at the family home and established the Association of Georgia Artists. Within ten years the membership roster swelled to nearly 100, committed to helping home-grown artists find representation within and without the state. Murphy served as the organization’s president from 1934 to 1935, and was also an active member and president of the Savannah Art Club, the oldest art club in Georgia. Murphy maintained a rigorous exhibition schedule for the rest of his life, which included showing his work in Georgia at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, and in New York at the 1939 New York World’s Fair, the Print Club of Rochester, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Many of his pieces are still on display in Ohio at the Cleveland Print Club and in Pennsylvania at the Philadelphia Print Club. At various times he taught classes at Armstrong State College (later Armstrong State University), Hunter Air Force Base Service Club, the Savannah Area Vocational-Technical School (later Savannah Technical College), and the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences. He also accepted a limited number of portrait commissions and contributed illustrations and articles to several magazines, including American Architect, Country Life, House Beautiful, and Southern Architect. Murphy married Ernestine Cole in 1946, with whom he had a son. In 1947 he produced thirty-seven illustrations for the book “Savannah,” a collaboration between Murphy and local historian Walter Charlton Hartridge that was a national bestseller and helped initiate massive restoration efforts in historic downtown Savannah. Murphy died on October 20th, 1973, and the largest collection of his pieces can be found today on permanent display at the Morris Museum of Art in Augusta.
Spotting on mat.
