Al Hirschfeld Drawings Featured in Heritage Auctions' Illustration Art Signature Auction

Ten Al Hirschfeld drawings are amongst the works featured in Heritage Auctions' Illustration Art Signature® Auction on Tuesday, April 25. The sale includes more than 400 lots, including works by iconic artists, including 13 works by Gil Elvgren, who made his name creating highly recognizable pin-ups from the 1930s to the 1970s; three works by Charles Addams, creator of The Addams Family; and three intimate studies by Joseph Christian Leyendecker, one of the most celebrated illustrators of the 20th century. These lot and the others included in this event can be found at HA.com/8114.

Highlights from this auction will preview at Heritage's Dallas headquarters from 10AM to 5PM on both Friday, April 21, and Monday, April 24. For more information, please click here.

Among the All Hirschfeld works featured in the auction:

Musical Comedy or Musical Serious? - In 1957, Hirschfeld captured in one pithy and elegant composition a phenomenon that was making its way onto the Broadway stage: the serious musical. The illustration was for a New York Times Magazine article written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, director, and producer George S. Kaufman that was subtitled "Musicals used to be boy and girl, song and dance, humor and happy ending. But now you can't see the chorus boys through your tears. Where will it all end?" Published six weeks after West Side Story's Broadway debut, Kaufman poked fun at the rise of musicals that left out the comedy. This work by Hirschfeld is especially memorable in its role as the harbinger of a trend. The illustration depicts the industry schism taking place on Broadway stages by splitting the picture's background and foreground into very different narratives: The stage in the back of the image hosts an exuberant Ziegfeld Follies-type song-and-dance number, while players in the foreground lead a chained victim to a guillotine and strangle a medical patient with a knotted rope. A lone, corked bottle of cocaine sits just out of reach. Business in the front; party in the back. The overall style is trademark Hirschfeld, with his elegant linework, lyrical treatment of the human form, and insider witticisms sprinkled throughout.

Strange Bedfellows illustrates the 1965 movie of the same name starring Gina Lollobrigida and Rock Hudson. Here, Lollobrigida poses as a naked Lady Godiva on her horse while Hudson takes a swing at a police officer. Hirschfeld wasn't limited to stage production illustration; he was a veteran of movie studio publicity and art departments, having worked for Goldwyn, Universal, Pathé, Selznick, Fox, First National, and Warner Brothers. "I lived in the movies," he says of his early years, and it was in films that he discovered his gift of caricature. He would continue to draw films for studio publicity throughout his 82-year career.

Marlene Deitrich portrait,1967. Deitrich was a longtime close friend of Hirschfeld and his wife, though Dietrich (a veteran touring singer by then) didn't make her Broadway debut, an eponymous musical production, until 1967. She had waited in part because she wanted her arranger Burt Bacharach to conduct her production's orchestra. Outfitted in a $30,000 gown with bugle beads lined with 14-karat gold by Jean Louis of Hollywood, Dietrich performed for six weeks. The day before she opened, Hirschfeld's stunning drawing of the actress and singer, in her gown, appeared in The New York Times. The iconic image caught a world-weary Dietrich in a sultry pose.

This month's auction marks a continuation of Heritage's relationship with The Al Hirschfeld Foundation, initiated last fall with an auction to benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and the Foundation itself. Several of the ink-on-board drawings offered in this month's auction come directly from the Al Hirschfeld Foundation and the selection includes some real gems by the beloved artist.

Hirschfeld's drawings stand as one of the most innovative efforts in establishing the visual language of modern art through caricature in the 20th century. A self-described "characterist," Hirschfeld's signature work, defined by a linear calligraphic style, appeared in virtually every major publication over nine decades (including a 75-year relationship with The New York Times), as well as numerous book and record covers and 15 postage stamps. Hirschfeld, a two-time Tony Award recipient, died in 2003 at the age of 99. Later that year, Broadway's Martin Beck Theatre was renamed the Al Hirschfeld Theatre.

"The Al Hirschfeld Foundation is delighted to be working with Heritage to showcase the wide range of Hirschfeld art," says David Leopold, Creative Director, The Al Hirschfeld Foundation. "In this sale alone there are significant theatre pieces including a drawing of perhaps the greatest Othello to have ever played on an American stage, works from films and television, and diverse personalities from James Joyce to Tarzan."

"Al Hirschfeld's long and illustrious career goes beyond that of an artist," says Meagen McMillan, Heritage Auctions' Senior Specialist in Illustration and American Art. "The legendary caricaturist captured and documented with humor and line every great zeitgeist, icon and celebrity who crossed his path throughout his career spanning nine decades, from Broadway to Hollywood and beyond."

Heritage Auctions is the largest fine art and collectibles auction house founded in the United States, and the world's largest collectibles auctioneer. Heritage maintains offices in New York, Dallas, Beverly Hills, Chicago, Palm Beach, London, Paris, Geneva, Amsterdam, Brussels and Hong Kong. Heritage also enjoys the highest Online traffic and dollar volume of any auction house on earth (source: SimilarWeb and Hiscox Report). The Internet's most popular auction-house website, HA.com, has more than 1,600,000 registered bidder-members and searchable free archives of more than 6,000,000 past auction records with prices realized, descriptions and enlargeable photos.

 

The mission of the Al Hirschfeld Foundation is to promote interest in the theater and visual arts by supporting non-profit museums, libraries, theaters and similar cultural institutions. The Foundation fulfills its mission through grants and exhibitions of Hirschfeld's art. The Foundation maintains an extensive collection of Hirschfeld artworks and lends and/or donates pieces to institutions all over the world. Another primary mission is arts education, which the Foundation does primarily with the Hirschfeld Arts Curriculum. Created in conjunction with the New York City Board of Education, The Hirschfeld Arts Curriculum is an innovative visual/performing arts education program based on Hirschfeld's art to engage students K through 12 in a variety of arts activities. Our programs encourage writing, reading, researching, observing, movement and performance to learn about the arts, its history, and the opportunities for education and employment in the arts field. The web based Al Hirschfeld curriculum is easy to use, and is intended to be a free resource for teachers and students. AlHirschfeldFoundation.org