Charley Harper

Charley Harper (August 4, 1922 – June 10, 2007) was a Cincinnati-based American Modernist artist. He was best known for his highly stylized wildlife prints, posters, and book illustrations. Born Charles Burton Harper in Frenchton, West Virginia, in 1922, Harper's upbringing on his family farm influenced his work to his last days. He left his farm home to study art at the Art Academy of Cincinnati and won the academy's first Stephen H. Wilder Traveling Scholarship. Also, during his time at the Academy, and supposedly on the first day, Charley met fellow artist Edie McKee, whom he married shortly after graduation in 1947.

In 1953, a Ford Motor Company publication offered this biographical sketch: "While Charles Harper was a freshman at West Virginia Wesleyan College, he was advised, after an aptitude test, to study journalism. Something inside him said no, and the following year he enrolled in the Cincinnati Art Academy. After a [WWII] tour of duty with the 104th Infantry in Europe, he, aided by an art scholarship, went on a four-months' painting tour of the country with his bride. He worked in a Cincinnati studio as a commercial artist by day and in his home as a fine artist by night."

Charley and Edie's honeymoon travel, mainly in the West and South, was supported by the Stephen H. Wilder Scholarship the Academy awarded to Charley for post-graduate travels. Charley Harper returned to the Art Academy of Cincinnati as a teacher and also worked for a commercial firm before working on his own. He and his wife worked out of their Roselawn and Finneytown homes, and later, with their only child, Brett Harper, formed Harper Studios.

During his career, Charley Harper illustrated numerous books, notably The Golden Book of Biology, magazines such as Ford Times, as well as many prints, posters, and other works. As his subjects are mainly natural, with birds prominently featured, Charley often created works for many nature-based organizations, among them the National Park Service, Cincinnati Zoo, Cincinnati Nature Center, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Hamilton County (Ohio) Park District, and Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in Pennsylvania. He also designed interpretive displays for Everglades National Park.

Charley Harper died in Cincinnati on Sunday, June 10, 2007, at age 84, after contending with pneumonia for some months.