Vintage Al Hirschfield (1903-2003) Signed Lithograph

Details

Description

Available for your consideration: Playful Litho illustration of a dancer by Al Hirschfeld. Signed Original frame

Actual painting: 19.5" x … Read more Available for your consideration: Playful Litho illustration of a dancer by Al Hirschfeld. Signed Original frame

Actual painting: 19.5" x 25.5"

Al Hirschfeld (born June 21, 1903, St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.—died January 20, 2003, New York, New York) was an American caricature artist, especially known for his drawings appearing in The New York Times, portraying show-business personalities.

Hirschfeld’s family moved from St. Louis to upper Manhattan in New York City when he was 11 years old, and at age 17 he went to work as the art director of Selznick Studios in the city’s Astoria district. With money saved, he went to Europe in 1924 to study art, residing mostly in Paris in the 1920s but returning often to New York City. In 1925 a Hirschfeld caricature drawn on a theatre Playbill was reproduced by The New York Herald Tribune. After his work became more popular and was published in several New York newspapers, he entered into an agreement with The New York Times in 1929 for the use of his theatre caricatures, and his drawings appeared in the newspaper up until his death. Following the birth of his daughter, Nina, he began hiding her name in the drawings and it became something of a pastime for readers to discover how many times her name appeared. (His work of theatrical and nontheatrical personalities continued to appear in numerous other publications.) In the 1930s he took a long trip to the Far East, where Japanese and Javanese art is said to have influenced his graphic style. See less