Library Mural – Winchester MA

Description

The Winchester Public Library website describes an example of New Deal artwork:

The Library’s largest work of art is the mural in the main lobby, facing the front door and above the entrance to the Reference Room. Entitled “Purchase of Land from the Indians,” the mural depicts the sale of the land on which Winchester stands to the colonists by the Squaw Sachem. It was painted by Aiden Lassell Ripley (1896–1969) in 1934.

Funding for the mural came from the United States Government’s Civil Works Administration’s Public Works of Art project, which employed artists to paint murals for public buildings during the Depression. The painting was done on canvas in Ripley’s Lexington studio, brought to the library, and affixed to the wall with white lead, an unusual technique.

Ripley, a well-known painter and water colorist of sporting scenes, Boston views, and portraits, is perhaps best known for his duck and grouse hunting scenes. In addition to “Purchase of Land from the Indians,” Ripley painted “Paul Revere’s Ride” for the Lexington Post Office.