?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
STEFAN NORBLIN (1892-1952) TORUN. Circa 1927. 39 1/4x24 1/2 inches, 99 3/4x62 1/4 cm. Bibljoteka Polska, Warsaw. Condition B / B+: repaired tears, replaced losses, creases and overpainting in margins and image. Paper affixed to board at lower corners. Norblin was a painter, illustrator, set and costume designer, portraitist and poster designer. In 1939, Norblin left Poland and wound up in Iraq, where he painted portraits of the royal family. The war, which had started while he was gone, prevented Norblin from returning home, and in 1941 he moved to India where he stayed for five years. While there, he was commissioned to design the interiors of the royal palace at Umaid Bhawan which included murals, furniture and portraits. This led to other commissions for which he designed interiors for several other palaces. In 1946, unwilling to return to his homeland now under Communist control, Norblin moved to San Francisco, where he continued painting portraits, including that of General Douglas MacArthur, which hangs in the Pentagon. Norblin took his own life in 1952 when he was diagnosed with glaucoma and couldn't face the prospect of losing his eyesight. "Torun, once the largest and most important Hanseatic trading center on the Vistula, is best known for its Gothic architecture and as the birthplace of Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543). It was the capital of Pomerania and had a pre-war population of 80,000" (Polish Poster p. 59). Polish Poster 99, Gebrauchsgraphik April 1, 1936, p. 44 (var).
