Original Drawing by Ralph
Leon Bagley (American, 1913-2008) Farm Landscape
Charcoal on paper.
Signed lower right and dated "Ralph L. Bagley 1946", also titled "Fontana Village Shopping Center".
Size 19" x 25".
Ralph Leon Bagley (1913 – 2008) was a Central Florida
artist and art instructor who specialized in charcoal and oil.
Ralph Leon Bagley was born in Bertrand, Missouri in 1913.
While he was still a boy, the family moved to Flint, Michigan, where Bagley
attended the Flint Institute of Arts while still in high school. In 1936, he
married Marianne Avery, whom he met in St. Petersburg, Florida. For several
years, the Bagleys divided their time between Daytona Beach, Florida, where
they had an art store, Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire, and Port Chester, New
York. During their time in New York, Bagley studied at the Art Students’ League
in New York City. During World War II the family moved to Washington, D.C.,
where he studied art at the Corcoran Gallery School.
Beginning in 1946, Bagley was Staff Artist at Fontana
Village Resort in the Smoky Mountains in North Carolina. The family moved to
Florida in 1950, but even after settling in Orlando, the family enjoyed going
back to Fontana Village for summer school for several years. Bagley opened the
Orlando Institute of Art in 1955, which was the first school of fine art in
Orlando. During that time he also taught art classes at Orlando Junior College,
and in 1965 was made head of the Art Department. After the school closed in
1971, he taught at Lake Sumter Community College, Crealdé School of Art,
Maitland Art Center, Valencia Community College, and Loch Haven Art Center (now
the Orlando Museum of Art). Bagley served in many art organizations, was
president of the Orlando Art Association, and a founding member and past
president of the Artists’ League of Orange County. He toured the nation with at
least 30 one-man art shows featuring his paintings. At all of the locations he
lived or visited, he was always drawing sketches of the local scenery and
giving workshops to demonstrate his charcoal technique.
Bagley was a versatile artist who used oil, watercolor, and
charcoal to depict landscapes, still lifes, and portraits. He loved
experimentation and exploration to find satisfactory means of expressing
personal ideas and feelings. That adventurous spirit led him to work with a
great variety of media, although he devoted most of his time to charcoal and
oil. Bagley was a creative mind who shared his love of art with everyone he
came in contact with, and set an atmosphere for his students to learn and be
creative. His wardrobe was always a shirt and tie, and defied the stereotypical
dress of an artist. He taught art for nearly 60 years to college students and
professionals alike. Bagley died at the age of 94 in Winter Park, Florida.