?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
ROBERT W. RICHARDS (1941-2019)
Group of 4 drawings. Standing Figure, watercolor on cream wove paper. Initialed in watercolor, lower right recto * Seated Figure with Crossed Legs, crayon and pen and ink on transparency. Initialed in ink, lower right recto * Seated Figure, pencil on cream wove paper * Two Standing Figures, mixed media on transparency. Initialed in pencil, lower right recto. Various sizes and conditions.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Richards began his career as an illustrator in New York, sketching fashion collections for newspapers and beauty illustrations for brands such as L'Oréal and Revlon. He went on to create posters and illustrations for Broadway shows including Noel Coward‘s Present Laughter and Legs Diamond, one of the many shows he worked on for Peter Allen. A friend to many musicians, he created album cover art for Sarah Vaughan, Lena Horne, Dinah Shore, and Peggy Lee. He devoted his last years to drawing gay erotic art both as fine art and for illustrations in Mandate and other publications. In 2018, he was featured in a Kate Spade advertising campaign along with other celebrities such as Jourdan Dunn, Iris Apfel, and Jon Batisste.
