Donald Frederick Witherstine Massachusetts (1895 - 1961) Gothic Church / Cathedral Interior with stained glass oil on canvas signed lower right. Biography from the Archives at askART: Donald F Witherstine was born in 1896 and was later schooled in Herkimer New York. He studied at Bradley College in Illinois and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He served in World War I, and also pursued his art education at The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA) in Philadelphia. He landed in Provincetown, Massachusetts to study with one of its art colony founders, George Elmer Browne. This began a lifetime love affair with Cape Cod, and he became an early and longtime advocate for the famous "Ptown" art colony. He was skilled in landscape and seascape painting in both oils and watercolors.This work was compared to that of Cezanne, one of the artist he particularly studied at PAFA. He was also proficient in etching, but today is remembered most for his beautiful, moody woodblock prints in the tradition of the Provincetown Printmakers. He was a gallery director in the 1940's at the Shore Studios (47 Commercial Street, Provincetown and later at the South Shore Studios and Gallery 200. He also had, for a short time, a branch studio on Newbury Street in Boston. He was active in "Ptown" organizations acting as director of the Provincetown Art Association & Museum. In 1949, he was a driving force behind Forum 49, a legendary summer long series of avant-garde art presentations (painting, sculpture, writing, architecture, etc) in 1949. In 1933, the Society of Allied Artists of America choose one of his prints to be distributed to its members for Christmas. His works are in the collections of the Art Institute of Bloomington, University .of Illinois and the Provincetown Art Association Museum. .His archives are preserved in the Smithsonian Archives of American Art. He died and is buried in Provincetown in 1961. Written and submitted by Robert Savage -The Wellesley Collection 31 1/4"H x 27 1/2"W (sight), 39 1/4"H x 35 1/2"W (frame)