1940s "Victoria" Lithograph by Zsissly(b.1897-1983)

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22 1/2”W x 19”H x 1 1/2”D

An absolute tour de force of mid-century American printmaking, Victoria (1947) is an … Read more 22 1/2”W x 19”H x 1 1/2”D

An absolute tour de force of mid-century American printmaking, Victoria (1947) is an original black ink lithograph on wove paper by the renowned Illinois artist Malvin Marr Albright, who masterfully created under the professional pseudonym Zsissly. Operating alongside his identical twin brother, Ivan Albright, Malvin adopted the moniker "Zsissly" so the brilliant brothers could strategically bookend the beginning and absolute end of every alphabetized museum exhibition catalog. Coming from a formidable Chicago art dynasty, Malvin was an academic powerhouse—honing his rigor at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts—and famously collaborated with his brother when MGM Studios hired the twins to create the focal canvases for the 1945 Hollywood classic The Picture of Dorian Gray. Commissioned by the historic Associated American Artists and pulled by the legendary master printers George C. Miller & Son, this specific composition skirts the line between American Realism and a haunting, psychological Magic Realism. It features an imposing, confrontational portrait of a woman seated behind a heavily layered dining table packed with a dense, maximalist arrangement of textures—from the intricate lace tablecloth to the high-contrast glazes of crystal glassware—all brought to life with incredibly rich chiaroscuro and velvety tonal gradients. Pencil-signed "Zsissly" in the lower right, titled in the lower left, and retaining its authentic Eden Gallery attribution stamp on the reverse dust cover, this print belongs to an edition whose sister impressions reside in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum, the National Gallery of Art, and the Smithsonian. Framed in an elegant, clean-lined gilded wood molding with an archival white mat, it serves as a historically significant, visually arresting design anchor capable of commanding any sophisticated contemporary space.

Illinois

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