Donald "Putt" Putman Oil Portrait of Martha Harris — Signed

A large-format oil portrait of a seated woman — silver-bobbed hair, cool blue eyes, dressed in white — rendered with the confident hand of an illustration-trained artist. The face is fully resolved in tight, assured brushwork; the figure below dissolves into gestural sienna underdrawing and loose contour lines. The background shifts from soft lavender-gray at left to a grounding block of cadmium yellow at upper right. The effect reads as deliberate stylistic choice rather than an incomplete work: alla prima authority at the head, expressive economy everywhere below.

Signed lower right "Putt." Subject identified as Martha Harris. Ex-collection George and Martha Harris, Las Cruces, New Mexico.

About the Artist

Donald "Putt" Putman was born in Spokane, Washington in 1926 and spent most of his life in California. After serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, he studied at Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles — the institution that trained his eye and defined his approach to the figure for the rest of his career. Before committing fully to painting, Putman worked as a scenic artist for MGM, contributing to productions including Mutiny on the Bounty and The Four Horsemen — a background that gave his figurative work a theatrical command of scale, light, and composition. During the 1960s he returned to Art Center as an instructor, becoming known as a dedicated teacher of drawing and illustration. While his reputation rests primarily on paintings of the American West — Native American subjects, Vaqueros, frontier life, circus performers — his range was considerably broader, encompassing portraiture, nudes, dance, and landscape. His ability to render women, in particular, was widely noted by contemporaries and dealers alike. Putman signed his work with his nickname "Putt" throughout his career. His paintings are held in the Rochester Museum of New York, the Whitney Museum in Wyoming, and private collections including those of Charlton Heston, Burt Reynolds, and Clint Eastwood. He died in 2007 at the age of 81.

CONDITION Good, As Shown. The canvas presents cleanly with no visible cracking, flaking, or restoration. The green-toned floater frame shows light handling wear at the corners consistent with age.

DIMENSIONS / SPECIFICATIONS

• Visible (canvas): 38" × 32"
• Overall (framed): 39.5" × 33.5"
• Medium: Oil on canvas
• Frame: Green-toned wood floater frame
• Subject: Martha Harris
• Signature: Lower right — "Putt"
• Artist: Donald "Putt" Putman (American, 1926–2007)
• Provenance: Ex-collection George & Martha Harris, Las Cruces, NM