Portrait of Seymour Lipton. Pencil on cream wove paper. 185x275 mm; 7 3/8x10 7/8 inches. Signed and dated in pencil, lower right recto. 1939.
Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist by the current owner; private collection, New York.
Born in Beverly, Massachusetts, Barnet attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston from 1928-30. He later won a 3-year scholarship to the Art Students League, New York, where he focused on printmaking. Throughout his career, he mastered a variety of techniques, including etching, woodcut and lithography, such as the current lot. An extremely dynamic artist, Barnet changed his style significantly throughout his career. His earliest graphic works captured the social and economic despair which resulted from the Great Depression; during these years he also worked for the WPA, producing prints for the graphics arts division.
