Bill Littlefield

American painter and lithographer William Littlefield was also a writer and art collector. In 1919, this son of a doctor began studying drawing and painting with Adeleine Wolever (1890-1946), an impressionist. Littlefield attended Harvard University, studying art history, life drawing, and art technique and attended technical classes at the Fogg Art Museum. At Harvard, he was influenced by the style of the Impressionist Boston School. He then continued his private lessons with Wolever until 1923. In early October 1924, Littlefield moved to France to study art, spending most of his time in the South of France and Italy (Siena and Firenze) until 1927, then returning to Paris. There, he painted mostly nudes and had his first homosexual relationship.

Littlefield returned to the United States in June 1929 and spent the summer painting in Falmouth, on Cape Cod, staying with his parents. He spent the winter of 1929-30 living in Boston, continuing to paint portrait commissions, Cape landscapes, and still lifes. During World War II, he painted murals for the company day room and post headquarters on classical themes, easel paintings incorporating military objects, and stage sets for theater productions. In the 1950s, he considered himself an abstract expressionist and, although he continued to paint primarily nudes, he increasingly painted abstract works. Eventually Littlefield was found lifeless in his home in 1969 after failing to show up for a dinner party.

There are several copies of the submitted works all showing boxers in different versions, as drawings (ink), etchings and lithographs. He started the series with boxing motifs in 1927/28 in Paris on behalf of a publisher. Amongst others, a series of six lithographs in the format 66 x 50 cm was published in 1929, possibly including his three entries.