Charley Harper Ptarmigan Grouse Game Bird Ford Times Silkscreen Print 21"

Description

Vintage print titled Ptarmigan by Charley Harper, one of many images designed by Harper for the Ford Times. Silkscreen on paper. Signed in plate. Titled in pencil at the lower right edge.

"Puzzle for bird counters, and everybody else—find the Ptarmigan. White-on-white in winter, brown-on-brown in summer, he spends his life above timberline in the Cascades and Rockies. But near perfect concealment does not save him from a rhythmic rise and fall in numbers revealed by counts of non-migrating populations. The cause of the several-year cycle is still black-on-black."

Ptarmigan, any of three or four species of partridgelike grouse of cold regions, belonging to the genus Lagopus of the grouse family, Tetraonidae. They undergo seasonal changes of plumage, from white against winter snowfields to gray or brown, with barring, in spring and summer against tundra vegetation. Ptarmigan differ from other members of the grouse family in having the toes covered with stiff feathers above and below. The rock ptarmigan is a medium-sized game bird in the grouse family. It is known simply as the ptarmigan in the UK. It is the official bird for the Canadian territory of Nunavut, where it is known as the aqiggiq, and the official game bird for the province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Willow ptarmigan (Lagopus lagopus).
Willow ptarmigan (Lagopus lagopus).
white-tailed ptarmigan with summer plumage
white-tailed ptarmigan with summer plumage
The common ptarmigan (L. mutus) ranges in the British Isles, Europe, and North America, where it is called rock ptarmigan.

“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.”

Condition

Very Good

Dimensions

20.5” x 15.25” (Width x Height)