William Franklin Draper
Navy Artist, American, 1912-2003
Draper studied at Harvard and at the National Academy of Design in New York. After joining the Navy, he was commissioned as a Lieutenant JG in the Naval Reserve in June 1942. His first assignment was with the Anti-Submarine Warfare Unit in Boston. He transferred to the Art Section in Washington DC shortly thereafter and was sent as a combat artist to Alaska where he spent over 5 months in the Aleutian Island Chain painting a series of 42 oils, and to the South Pacific. In 1945 his war art was exhibited at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, and the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Draper left the Navy in 1945 as a lieutenant commander having earned a Bronze Star. After the war, Draper established a studio on Park Avenue, New York City and began his career in portraiture. He was the only artist to paint President John F. Kennedy from life.