John Aldrich Ruthven (November 12, 1924 – October 11, 2020) was an American artist best known for his paintings of wildlife.

Biography

Ruthven was born in

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wi ...

in November 1924. After serving in the U.S. military in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Ruthven attended the

Art Academy of Cincinnati The Art Academy of Cincinnati is a private college of art and design in Cincinnati, Ohio, accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design. It was founded as the McMicken School of Design in 1869, and was a department of the U ...

and received his certificate in 1947. He opened a commercial art studio in Cincinnati. His work for clients included the

Play-Doh Play-Doh is a modeling compound for young children to make arts and crafts projects at home. The product was first manufactured in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, as a wallpaper cleaner in the 1930s. Play-Doh was then reworked and marketed to Ci ...

Boy, used in that product's original 1950s advertising. Ruthven's focus, however, was on wildlife painting in the style of John James Audubon. In 1960, his painting "Redhead Ducks" won the

Federal Duck Stamp The Federal Duck Stamp, formally known as the Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp, is an adhesive stamp issued by the United States federal government that must be purchased prior to hunting for migratory waterfowl such as ducks and gee ...

competition. Ruthven's wildlife paintings are on display at many museums including the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

, and his work was featured in a 1994 retrospective at the Cincinnati Museum of Natural History. He designed two pigs for Cincinnati's

Big Pig Gig The Big Pig Gig and Big Pig Gig: Do-Re-Wee were public art exhibits on display in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, in the summers of 2000 and 2012, respectively. Local artists and schools decorated hundreds of full-sized fiberglass pig statues and ...

in 2000. Other artwork includes a

Passenger pigeon The passenger pigeon or wild pigeon (''Ectopistes migratorius'') is an extinct species of pigeon that was endemic to North America. Its common name is derived from the French word ''passager'', meaning "passing by", due to the migratory habits ...

mural A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spani ...

on the wall of a six-story building in Cincinnati which can be seen in the 2014 documentary ''From Billions To None'' by David Mrazek and Joel Greenberg. The mural is located at 15 8th Street. Ruthven was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2004. He later lived on a farm near

Georgetown, Ohio Georgetown is a village in Brown County, Ohio, United States located about 36 miles southeast of Cincinnati. The population was 4,331 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Brown County. Georgetown was the childhood home of Ulysses S. Gra ...

and died in October 2020 at the age of 95.John Ruthven: Modern Audubon and 'a Cincinnati treasure' dead at 95
/ref>

Notes

External links

One official site Another official site Big Pig Gig artist entry with links to pig images
1924 births 2020 deaths 20th-century American painters American male painters 21st-century American painters United States National Medal of Arts recipients American military personnel of World War II People from Georgetown, Ohio Artists from Cincinnati American bird artists Military personnel from Cincinnati Art Academy of Cincinnati alumni 20th-century American male artists {{US-painter-1920s-stub