Dudley Huppler

Dudley Huppler never formally trained as an artist — he studied English at Madison — and yet his painstaking pen-and-ink drawings earned him a place in the Wisconsin magic realist circle, a decade in New York among Andy Warhol’s early collaborators, and admirers among poets from W.H. Auden to Ezra Pound. Then he came home to Wisconsin and taught English, and the art world largely forgot him. It is remembering now.

If you own a Huppler drawing, Revere Auctions would like to see it. Send photographs through our free auction estimate form and our fine art specialists will respond with an honest valuation.

Who Was Dudley Huppler?

Huppler was born in Muscoda, Wisconsin, in 1917 and came to art sideways: at the University of Wisconsin in Madison he studied English literature, and as an artist he taught himself. He fell in with the circle of painters around the university — John Wilde, Sylvia Fein, Marshall Glasier — and with Karl Priebe of Milwaukee, who became his partner as well as his colleague. During the war, Wilde mailed him large ink drawings worked up from a military journal; the circle ran on letters, drawings, and devotion.

Around 1949 he moved to New York, and his address book became remarkable. He collaborated with a young Andy Warhol in the mid-1950s, moved in the circle of the photographer George Platt Lynes, and his drawings drew the attention of literary men — W.H. Auden and Ezra Pound among them. A friend later recalled his “powerful, almost devastating, personality.”

Then, in the pattern of his whole circle, he went home. Huppler returned to Wisconsin, taught English, and kept drawing until his death in 1988 — a career that waited decades for the scholarship, and the museum wall space, it is only now receiving.

What Did Dudley Huppler Draw?

Huppler’s medium was pen and ink, used with obsessive patience — sheets built up from countless tiny marks until birds, flowers, figures, and strange emblems emerge with the density of engravings. The drawings are usually modest in size and immodest in labor, and they are instantly recognizable once you have seen a few.

Drawings make up nearly everything that comes to market. Because he worked outside the gallery system for much of his life, sheets still surface from Wisconsin families and from the New York friends of his 1950s decade, often unframed and undocumented.

How Much Is My Dudley Huppler Drawing Worth?

Several things determine what a work by Dudley Huppler brings at auction:

• Subject and density — the fully worked sheets — birds, portrait heads, emblematic still lifes — lead his market; quicker sheets sit below
• Period — work from the New York years and the tight 1940s Wisconsin circle carries the most art-historical weight
• Condition — ink on paper punishes light and damp; a clean, unfaded sheet matters
• Provenance — a Huppler that descends from his circle — Priebe, Wilde, the New York friends — carries its history in the price
• Inscriptions — he was a writer as well as an artist, and inscribed or dedicated sheets add interest

The honest answer is that no two are alike, and the difference between an ordinary example and an exceptional one is a conversation with a specialist, not a chart. Send us photographs through our free auction estimate form — front, back, signature, and any labels — and we will tell you what you have.

The Market for Huppler

Huppler is the definition of a rediscovery market. A scholarly monograph, renewed attention to queer artistic circles of the 1950s, and the Milwaukee Art Museum’s current exhibition of the Wisconsin magic realists have all put his name back in circulation, and the supply of his work is small and scattered.

When scholarship moves faster than the market, sellers have an opportunity. Auction places a drawing in front of the curators and collectors doing the rediscovering and lets them set the level. The alternative — selling quietly before the audience has assembled — is how rediscovered artists are sold too cheap.

How to Sell a Work by Huppler

The strongest results for a Dudley Huppler drawing come at auction, where national and international collectors bid against each other. Revere Auctions offers free, no-obligation auction estimates: send photos and dimensions and our specialists respond with a current market valuation and a recommendation on how to sell. Consigned works are professionally photographed, cataloged, and marketed through our fine art auctions to a worldwide bidder base, and we regularly arrange shipping for consignors across the country. If you need a formal written valuation for insurance or estate purposes, our appraisal and valuation services team can help; you can also read more about how selling at auction works.

Related: Wisconsin artists & the magic realists, our fine art department, appraisal services, free auction estimates.

Reviewed by the fine art specialists at Revere Auctions, St. Paul, Minnesota.

Dudley Huppler: Frequently Asked Questions

How much is a Dudley Huppler drawing worth?

His market is young and being actively rediscovered, so results vary widely with the quality and history of the sheet. Revere Auctions provides free auction estimates from photographs.

What did Dudley Huppler draw?

Meticulous pen-and-ink sheets of birds, flowers, figures, and emblematic still lifes, built from countless small marks. He also produced work connected to his 1950s New York circle, including collaborations with the young Andy Warhol.

How do I know if my drawing is by Huppler?

Look for a signature or inscription and any history connecting the sheet to Wisconsin or his New York years, then let a specialist confirm it. Send photographs with your free estimate request and we will review it.

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