Charley Harper | |
|---|---|
| Born | Charles Burton Harper August 4, 1922 |
| Died | June 10, 2007 (aged 84) Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S. |
| Education | Art Academy of Cincinnati |
| Known for | Wildlife art |
| Movement | Modernist |
| Spouse | |
| Children | Brett Harper |
| Awards | Sharonville Fine Arts Council Lifetime Achievement Award |
| Website | www |
Charley Harper (August 4, 1922 – June 10, 2007) was a Cincinnati-based American Modernist artist. He was best known for his highly stylized wildlife prints, posters, and book illustrations. Born Charles Burton Harper [1] in Frenchton, West Virginia in 1922, Harper's upbringing on his family farm influenced his work to his last days. He left his farm home to study art at the Art Academy of Cincinnati, and won the academy's first Stephen H. Wilder Traveling Scholarship. Also during his time at the Academy, and supposedly on the first day, Charley met fellow artist Edie Mckee, whom he married shortly after graduation in 1947.
Charley and Edie spent their honeymoon traveling the country, mainly in the west and south, being able to do so because of the Stephen H. Wilder Scholarship the Academy awarded to Charley for post-graduate travels. Charley Harper returned to the Art Academy of Cincinnati as a teacher and also worked for a commercial firm before working on his own. He and his wife worked out of their Roselawn and Finneytown homes, and later, with their only child Brett Harper, formed Harper Studios.
During his career, Charley Harper illustrated numerous books, notably The Golden Book of Biology, magazines such as Ford Times, as well as many prints, posters, and other works. As his subjects are mainly natural, with birds prominently featured, Charley often created works for many nature-based organizations, among them the National Park Service, Cincinnati Zoo, Cincinnati Nature Center, Cornell Lab of Ornithology,[2] Hamilton County (Ohio) Park District, and Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in Pennsylvania. He also designed interpretive displays for Everglades National Park.
Charley Harper died in Cincinnati on Sunday, June 10, 2007, at age 84 after contending with pneumonia for some months.[3]
- ^ "Learn About Charley Harper". 28 June 2010.
- ^ Tessaglia-Hymes, Diane (Spring 2006). "Thinking the World of Birds: An interview with artist Charley Harper". BirdScope. Vol. 20, no. 2. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Archived from the original on 2006-09-12. Retrieved 2019-02-20.
- ^ "Artist Charley Harper dies". Retrieved 2013-07-15.
Noted Cincinnati wildlife artist Charley Harper, 84, died Sunday. He had been battling pneumonia off and on for the past few months, said son, Brett. Harper was born in West Virginia in 1922. He arrived in Cincinnati to attend the Art Academy of Cincinnati and never left. He met wife, Edie, also an artist, at the Academy, and the two married in 1947 after graduating