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THBAiden Lassell Ripley (1896-1969), The Grouse Hunter
About Seller
20 Winter Street
Pembroke, MA 02359
United States
Founded in 2005, Copley Fine Art Auctions is a boutique auction house specializing in antique decoys and American, sporting, and wildlife paintings. Over the course of the last two decades, the firm has set auction records for not only individual decoy makers, but also entire carving regions. Copley...Read more
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About Auction
LiveJul 10, 2025
Lots 1-316 Copley Fine Art Auctions cinnie@copleyart.com
View Full Catalog (315)
- Lot Description
Aiden Lassell Ripley (1896-1969)
The Grouse Hunter
signed "A. Lassell Ripley" lower left
watercolor, 19 by 15 in.
"There has never been, nor perhaps will there ever be, an artist who so accurately portrayed ruffed grouse, woodcock, pheasant, quail, and turkey in each of their individual environments along with sportsmen in pursuit of these game birds." - Reverend William E. Lewis
Born in Wakefield, Massachusetts, Aiden Lassell Ripley was the son of a Boston Symphony Orchestra musician. From an early age he excelled at music, but he soon discovered a deeper interest in painting. By his mid-teens, Ripley was committed to a career in art, commuting into Boston to take classes. After returning from service in World War I, he attended the Boston Museum School where he studied with the country's top artists, including Philip Leslie Hale (1865-1934) and Frank W. Benson (1862-1951).
Ripley was awarded a Paige Traveling Fellowship to study in Europe. While abroad, he painted watercolors "en plein air" in North Africa, France, and Holland. Upon his return in 1925, he was elected to the prestigious Guild of Boston Artists. His work focused on the New England countryside as well as depictions of city life and railroad commuting scenes. The Great Depression, however, limited the sales potential for these works. Following a successful one-man show of his sporting art in 1930, Ripley decided to change tack and specialize in hunting, fishing, and outdoor scenes as subjects.Frank A. Currier Jr., whose hunting license is lot 296 in this sale, was born in Somerville, Massachusetts, in 1916. He studied engineering and played polo at Norwich University in Vermont, and later lived in Arlington, Massachusetts, not far from Ripley’s home in Lexington. The two were friends and hunting partners for many years until Currier died in 1962. His son, Arthur, also hunted and fished with Ripley, both as a boy and into his later years, and socialized as a couple along with their wives, Sharon and Doris. While on a fishing trip in 1968, Ripley gave Arthur this watercolor, and one year later Arthur was a pallbearer for the artist's funeral.
Provenance: Private Collection, Newburyport, Massachusetts, acquired as a gift from the artist in 1968
Alex Chester CollectionCondition
Please email condition report requests to leah@copleyart.com.
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