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MARCH 2024 DECORATIVE & FINE ART SALE
Lot 101:
Oil on canvas painting of two women lounging by a tree in the front yard by William Auerbach-Levy (1889 – 1964), Russian-American character illustrator, etcher, and Realist landscape painter. The painting is very expressive, with bright accents and a harmonious combination of naturalism and stylization. Housed in a vintage light wood brushed frame. Signed by the artist and stamped on the backside: "From the Studio of William Auerbach-Levy."
Note: William Auerbach-Levy gained notoriety both as the preeminent caricaturist of his time and as a fine and established painter and etcher. His caricatures of famous people, including Charles W. Hawthorne, Franklin P. Adams, Hayward Broun, H.L. Mencken, Ring Lardner and Will Rogers, appeared in illustrations from The New Yorker “Profiles”, The New York Post, The Brooklyn Eagle, Colliers Magazine, Esquire Magazine, The Christian Herald and many other preeminent publications of his time. Concurrent with his caricature work, Auerbach-Levy continued in his studio work, producing many paintings and etchings, and was awarded a number of prizes in those fields. As both a pupil and teacher at the National Academy of Design, he also studied at the Julian Academy in Paris under Jean-Paul Laurens. He was a member of the American National Academy, Salmagundi Club of Chicago, and prize winner at the Detroit Jewish Center. In 1929, he was made the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. Works by Auerbach-Levy were included in the “Fifty Prints of the Year” collections of 1931 and 1933. He was the winner of the Isaac N. Maynard Prize for portraiture (1925), Prize-Jewish Centre Exhibition (1926) and Prizes Chicago S.E., as well as the Isidor Prize from the Salmagundi Club; Lewis First Prize for Caricature PAFA (1927). His works are found in the permanent collections of the Library of Congress, Chicago Art Institute, Boston Art Museum, Detroit Institute of Arts, Worcester Art Museum, Honolulu Academy of Fine Arts, Print Room of the New York Public Library, and the Carnegie Institute of Pittsburgh. An extensive collection of his caricatures, paintings, drawings, and etchings was acquired by the National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C., and are a part of its permanent collection.
32 1/8 x 40 1/4 in., (81.5 x 102 cm.)
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