Description:Three quarter view of Ralph W. Routon seated, holding a book and clad leisurely, i.e. in shirt-sleeves without necktie.
History:This is a portrait by David F. Routon of his father, Ralph W. Routon, made during the summer of 1960 in the home of David Routon’s parents in Nashville TN. At the time the artist was 28 years old and his father 63 years old. The painting stayed in the possession of the artist’s parents until his father’s death in 1973 and then in the possession of his mother, Hallie Wheat Routon, until her death in 1983. Hallie and Ralph Routon were life-long Tennessee residents. David Routon now possesses the painting.
Notes:David F. Routon was born and raised in Tennessee. The making of this work occurred shortly after he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Mexico City College in December 1959 and shortly before he began graduate study in the Art Department of the University of Iowa in September 1960. Routon received the Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of Iowa in the summer of 1963 and thereafter pursued a teaching career in several colleges and universities, ultimately to retire from the Department of Art and Art History of the University of Nebraska in Lincoln in 1997.
