Ross Eugene Braught, who had been referred to by contemporary Thomas Hart Benton as "the greatest living American draftsman" (Cleveland), began his formal art studies at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. In 1921 he was awarded the prestigious Emlem Cresson Memorial Traveling Scholarship which allowed him to travel to England and Italy.

In 1923 he married Eugene Ostenton and and the couple made their home in Upper Black Eddy, Delaware until 1928. Here the young artist found tranquil landscapes and natural forms that he liked to depict in artworks such as Autumn, Upper Black Eddy from 1925. In this scintillating composition, the rolling and rhythmically colored hills are viewable through a curtain of jagged tree branches and twisting trunks, adorned with the last few leaves of autumn. The background and foreground interlink in a series of varied geometric forms and tonal relations, yet the viewer is forced to separate themselves from the landscape and deprived of their typical ability to interact with their natural surroundings. "A deeply spiritual affinity for the natural world was key in Braught's art throughout his life" (Cleveland) and it may have been the artist's intention to coerce the viewer into becoming a witness as opposed to a participant.

During his residency in Delaware, Braught exhibited regularly at galleries including the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C., and Dudensing Galleries, New York where he had a one-man show.

A life of learning and teaching guided Braught to many different locations in America including Woodstock, New York,where he became a member of the Woodstock art colony, Kansas City, Missouri, where he was head of the painting department at the Kansas City Art Institute, and on sketching trips to the Dakota Badlands, the Grand Canyon, and the Colorado Rockies. He traveled and worked internationally as well, visiting the British Virgin islands, Dutch Guiana, and Puerto Rico. He spent the last years of his life living in Philadelphia, up until his death in 1982.

Provenance: From a private collection in Connecticut to the gallery.

Bibliography:
David Cleveland, Ross Braught: A Visual Diary (New York: Hirschl & Adler, 2000), 5, 7.