Frank Whipple (1923-2016) American, Oil on Masonite. Signed bottom right. Depicts still life of an apple.

Depth: 1 1/2 in.

Overall size: 8 1/2 X 8 1/2 in.

Sight size: 4 3/4 X 4 3/4 in.

#1565 .

Frank Elbert Whipple Jr. was born in Kansas City, Missouri in February 1923. He studied industrial journalism at Kansas State College before enlisting in the Army in 1941. First stationed in North Africa, he was then sent to Italy, where he was treated in a Catholic hospital for shrapnel wounds to the leg. This was his first time encountering nuns, and he was profoundly moved by their serenity and good humor in the midst of wartime chaos. When he returned to Kansas City he worked as a journalist until 1948, when he moved his parents and brothers out to Redondo Beach, California. Working as a radio reporter and then an insurance salesman, he married Alma Albani, an opera singer with whom he had a son and daughter. After their divorce he taught himself to paint, first concentrating on portraits, still lifes, landscapes, and nudes, before discovering a life-long inspiration in nuns. Dubbed “Whipple’s Wimples,” he produced thousands of miniature scenes of gaggles of wimpled women, oil on board and 5 X 5 inches in size, always seen from behind in comical situations. Their popularity with Hollywood luminaries like John Wayne, Henry Fonda, and Cary Grant allowed him to quit insurance work and open Orange Gallery on Sunset and Vine in Los Angeles, which he ran the rest of his life. He passed away in June 2016.