Montreat View.
Montreat, N.C.
oil on canvasboard.

collection of Jean Andrews Capalbo

View from Alta Vista the Artist’s Home.
1920’s, Montreat, N.C.
oil on canvas.

This is the second known version of this scene. According to the owner, it was painted by the artist as a wedding gift for his parents. We do not know where the original painting is located.

collection of Mr. and Mrs. William Augustus Longstreet Sibley, Jr.

View from Alta Vista
the Artist’s Home.
oil on canvas.

This is the third known version of this scene. The work seems to be unfinished; note the clouds and mountains partially obscuring the trees in the foreground.

In an 1933 Exhibition at the High Museum in Atlanta, the exhibition inventory lists a painting called Racing in Clouds – Horses in Clouds. Is this the painting? If so, did Couper exhibit it in this “unfinished” state, or is this a later copy...or just another painting with horse clouds?

NOTES ON BACK

• $300 / painted by J.S. Couper / Tryon, North Carolina - View From Artists Home
  in Montreat, North Carolina / Vista Road Montreat

collection of Jean Andrews Capalbo

Pink Rhododendron from Gillette Woods. Tryon, N.C.
oil on canvas.

collection of Nancy Sibley Dunn

Man Plowing.
oil on canvasboard.

private collection

study for portrait of Thomas Woodworth.
charcoal and blue pencil.

Notice the blue lines that were transferred from the tracing paper. This is a quick way for an artist to establish reference lines for studies.

Once the lines are laid down, the artist can then concentrate on the study. If additional studies of the same view are needed, the artist simply retraces the dominant lines from the same piece of tracing paper. This obviously speeds up the work flow.

The Spartanburg County Museum of Art Permanent Collection
Gift of Jean Andrews Copalbo

study for portrait of Thomas Woodworth.
charcoal.

The final developed charcoal sketch often can stand on its own as a piece of artwork. This is a beauty.

The Spartanburg County Museum of Art Permanent Collection
Gift of Jean Andrews Copalbo

Head and Shoulder Color Study for a Portrait of Cadet Thomas Woodworth.
oil on canvas.

Once the artist feels that the values (light and shade) of the work have been adequately explored, color studies are made.

The Spartanburg County Museum of Art Permanent Collection
SAC 1977.2.02

collection of Jean Andrews Capalbo

Color study for a portrait of
Cadet Thomas Woodworth.
oil on canvas.

Whether working from drawings or photographs, a traditional means by which artists transfer compositional lines is through the use of a grid system (seen in the background here).

The whereabouts of the finished portrait is unknown. The sitter’s father was Mr. Thomas Woodworth, a former mayor of Spartanburg.

The Spartanburg County Museum of Art Permanent Collection
Gift of Jean Andrews Copalbo