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Frank Joseph Vavra (1892-1967), Painting, "Mount Moran, Teton Ranges, Wyoming"

Currency:USD Category:Art / General - Paintings Start Price:2,100.00 USD Estimated At:3,000.00 - 4,000.00 USD
Frank Joseph Vavra (1892-1967), Painting, Mount Moran, Teton Ranges, Wyoming
Condition Report available upon request
Frank Joseph Vavra (1892-1967), Mount Moran, Teton Ranges, Wyoming, signed lower right, titled verso, oil on artist board, c. 1935, 9 x 10 ¾ inches

Frank Vavra was born in St. Paul, Nebraska. His parents moved to Wyoming when he was seven. Vavra’s parents were from Prague and were very supportive of the arts. Vavra’s grandfather was a landscape gardener to Franz Josef, Emperor of Austria-Hungary. Despite the support Vavra received from his parents, there were not many opportunities for Vavra to study art in school and there were not many art supplies available at the local store. Vavra spent many years working various jobs in Cheyenne, including being a window decorator.
During service in World War I, Vavra was wounded on the battlefield and went to a hospital in Vichy, France. During his covalescence in Paris, he befriended Pillan, a pupil of Claude Monet. This friendship, along with his time in the hospital, allowed Vavra to paint again. When the war ended, Vavra returned to the U.S. with the intention of devoting himself to his art.
In 1923, Vavra came to Denver to study at the Denver Art Academy. At the Academy, he studied with George William Eggers and Robert Alexander Graham. He married Kathleen H. Huffman, a fashion artist at the Denver Dry Goods Company, whom he also met at the Academy. Huffman was an accomplished watercolorist and her work was in several art exhibitions. After their marriage, he opened a small studio in Denver and devoted himself to his art. By 1929, he was able to sell his work, which consisted mainly of landscapes, portraits, still life and scenes of his youth in Wyoming.
In 1930, Vavra and his wife moved to Insmont, Colorado with their first child Eloise. Vavra had purchased an old building in Insmont and rebuilt it into a studio-home. He remodeled the home so that it resembled an “art object that was the most individual studio in the Rocky Mountain region.” Eventually, Vavra and his wife had two more children, Joey and Diana, but Joey fell ill and required expert medical care. So the family moved back to Denver. Occasionally, Vavra would visit Cheyenne, Wyoming to give art lessons. For the last year of Vavra’s life, he painted murals and assisted the decorating department at the Olinger Decorating Company.
Exhibitions: Ann Denver Art Museum, 1936; Kansas City Art Institute, 1935, 1936;
Works Held: State Capitals, Denver, CO, Cheyenne, WY
Further Reading: Artists of the American West: A Biographical Dictionary, Vol. 1, Doris Ostrander Dawdy, Swallow Press, Chicago, 1980. 3 Vols.; The Illustrated Biographical Encyclopedia of Artists of the American West, Peggy and Harold Samuels, Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, New York, 1976; Who Was Who in American Art 1564-1975: 400 Years of Artists in America, Vol. III. Peter Hastings Falk, Georgia Kuchen and Veronica Roessler, eds.,Sound View Press, Madison, Connecticut, 1999. 3 Vols.
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