The Pond Cover
- oil on canvas
- 27.5 x 40.125 in
- Aiden Lasell Ripley
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$80000. - 100000. Provenance: The artist; Private collection Massachusetts until 1994; Private collection Maine by descent The original owner of The Pond Cover was a member of The Laurel Brook Club in Uxbridge Massachusetts a club to which the artist also belonged. Born in Massachusetts Ripley eventually enrolled at the Boston Museum School where Frank Benson the celebrated Impressionist and wildlife painter was teaching. Benson's impressionistic influence was clearly visible in Ripley's early work and by the 1940s and 1950s their works were connected even more. Ripley's career began as the sporting life was becoming firmly entrenched in the American conscience after the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt and men such as Ernest Hemingway served as cultural icons. His work soon came in great demand by the new corporate gentleman who regarded hunting fishing and the sporting life as more than sport but also tradition and adventure. This scene of two men and their setters hunting what appears to be a woodcock (the artist's favorite subject) and the rolling hills with the estate looming in the background are a perfect example of Ripley's specialty the masculinity of the hunt.