Mar 21, 2017 - Sale 2440

Sale 2440 - Lot 230

Price Realized: $ 2,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,000
AL HIRSCHFELD.
"Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands." Cover illustration for The American Mercury, published May 1, 1946. Gouache on board. 444x234 mm; 17 1/2x12 3/4 inches. Signed in black, lower image. Overall light fading where exposed by matte window, a few surface marks to recto. Hammer Galleries label on verso.

Additional Details

From 1943 to 1946, Hirschfeld contributed the cover illustration to every issue of The American Mercury magazine. The subject was always a portrait, most often a world leader or an American political figure, and frequently in color. It became a particularly special and beloved commission for him. He continued through December 1946 and created three more in the first half of 1947. Crafted with a more restrained and detailed hand than his usual caricatures, they represent a unique strand of Hirschfeld's portraits.