British artist, portrait of Grace Draper, 17th century. Finely painted on wood, a 3/4 length portrait of Grace Draper (formerly Grace Mitchell; British, 1582-1635) who was born and lived her life in Heptonstall, Halifax, Yorkshire, England. Mrs. Draper wears an elegant black dress with gold trim across the bodice and a gold chain belt, over a scarlet red garment visible at the neck and sleeves, and a white bonnet and collar, with white cuffs visible at her wrists. She looks out at the viewer with a serious expression and is bedecked in a double-strand choker-style necklace and several gold rings, the one on her left middle finger set with a beautiful red stone, perhaps a ruby. She holds a gold chain in her right hand and a brown glove in her left that matches the sash draped over her arms. The inscription on the verso of the painting reads, "Painting of Mrs. Draper, wife of Thomas Draper … of Hepstonstall … Halifax County York and mother of James Draper who emigrated to America in 1650 and settled at Roxbury Massachusetts" Size: 22.7" L x 17.4" W (57.7 cm x 44.2 cm)

Grace married William Thomas Draper (British, 1578-1635), a weaver by profession, on August 29, 1603 in Heptonstall, and the couple had nine children, including James Draper (1622-1694) - who is mentioned in the handwritten inscription on the verso of the painting and was an early settler of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, settling in Roxbury, Massachusetts (but had also lived in Dedham and Charlestown).

Mrs. Draper was an ancestor of the artist William Franklin Draper (American, 1912-2003). William Draper's career spanned seven decades and his subjects included a portrait of John F. Kennedy that hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C. based upon an oil sketch for which the president sat in 1962. Draper was actually the only artist who painted JFK from life. Draper showed at Knoedler, the Graham Gallery, Portraits, Inc., the Far Gallery, The Findlay Galleries (New York, NY) and the Robert C. Vose Galleries (Boston, MA). His work has been included in shows at the National Portrait Gallery and the Corcoran Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.), The National Academy of Design (New York, NY), The Boston Museum of Fine Arts, (Boston, MA) the Fogg Art Museum, (one of the Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, MA), the National Gallery, (London), Salon de la Marine (Paris) and in museums in Australia. He also taught at the Art Students League of New York, and received a lifetime achievement award from the Portrait Society of America in 1999.

William Franklin Draper was born in Hopedale, Massachusetts on December 24, 1912. A child prodigy, he studied classical piano at Harvard University. He later changed his focus to fine art and studied with Charles Webster Hawthorne and Henry Hensche in Provincetown, Rhode Island. Draper also attended the National Academy of Design in New York and the Cape Cod School of Art in Massachusetts. Then he traveled to Spain and studied with Harry Zimmerman, moved on to France and attended the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere. In 1937, he moved to Boston to study sculpture with George Demetrius and also studied with Jon Corbino in beautiful Rockport, Massachusetts. In 1942, Draper joined the Navy and served as a combat artist when stationed on the Aleutian Islands and in the South Pacific. He observed and painted battle scenes on Bougainville, Guam, Saipan, and other locations, as well as genre scenes of soldiers who were not engaged in combat but rather at work and at play. National Geographic magazine reproduced 25 of his war images in four issues in 1944. In 1945, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. organized a group exhibition of works by five official war artists, including Draper. That same year the Metropolitan Museum of Art included Draper in an exhibition entitled, ''The War Against Japan.'' Draper was also featured in a PBS television show about combat artists entitled, "They Drew Fire" in May of 2000. After the war, Draper opened a studio on Park Avenue in New York City and continued to not only paint, but also play classical and jazz piano.

Provenance: The William F. Draper Collection, New York City, USA, acquired via descent from the late William Franklin Draper (1912-2003), an accomplished American artist whose career spanned seven decades. Known as the "Dean of American Portraiture," William Draper was the only artist to paint President John F. Kennedy from life, and his oeuvre includes marvelous landscapes from his world travels, military paintings as he was one of only seventeen Combat Artists in WWII, and portraits of illustrious individuals.

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#153512

Scuffs and scratches commensurate with age, but in general, the portrait and hues are impressively vivid and the painting was beautifully executed. There is an old inscription handwritten on paper on the verso that provides a brief description of the sitter and is marked with a French customs stamp at the left. Above is a small label that reads, "DRAPER". A fissure down one side of the wooden panel was repaired (a very old repair) with a strip of fabric adhered to the verso. There are also remnants of old paper around the periphery of the verso.