William Draper (American, 1912-2003). "Connor Pass, County Kerry, Ireland" oil on canvas, 1979. Signed "Wm. F. Draper" on lower right. Among William Draper's most impressive landscape paintings, this large-scale scene captures the beauty of Connor Pass in Ireland, a high mountain pass on the southwestern end of the Dingle Peninsula with peekaboo views of Brandon Bay and Castlegregory. Ireland was one of Draper's favorite places to visit, and he adored the scenery of Connor Pass with its dramatic cliff faces, lush greenery, and pristine lakes. This composition beckons the viewer to take it all in, from the terrain of the foreground to the blue mountainsides in the distance. Draper's fabulous Neo-Impressionist style and impasto passages imbue the composition with palpable atmosphere. Size: 35.875" L x 29.875" W (91.1 cm x 75.9 cm) Size: 37.875" L x 31.5" W (96.2 cm x 80 cm)

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.

More on the artist's background: 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.

This painting was exhibited at the Century Association Professional Painters Exhibition - October 16 to November 28, 2001. See label on verso with a price of $19,500. There is also a descriptive label beside it that reads, "The artist was driving along when he suddenly saw the view, stopped and admire(d) it, and then kept on going. But he returned to paint this magnificent view. The artist was eager to capture the beautiful rhythm of the land."

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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Exhibition labels on verso from the Century Association Professional Painters Exhibition (2001) with a list price of $19,500 and a description of the moment Draper was captured by this view (see extended description for this). Draper Estate stamp on verso. Painting is signed "Wm. F. Draper" on lower right. There is a small scuff to the pink sky on the upper left, but otherwise the painting is in excellent condition.