Jack Levine 1915 - 2010

Estimate

100,000 - 150,000 USD

bidding is closed

Description

Jack Levine
The Princess
signed J. Levine, l.l.
oil on canvas
78 by 48 in.
(198.1 by 122 cm)
Painted in 1960.

Provenance

The Alan Gallery, New York
Acquired by the present owner from the above, 1960

Exhibited

New York, The Alan Gallery, Jack Levine, April 1963, no. 2

Literature

Frank Getlein, Jack Levine, New York, 1966, illustrated in color pls. 124, 133
S.R. Frankel, ed., Jack Levine, New York, 1989, p. 94, illustrated in color p. 94

Catalogue Note

Jack Levine wrote: "The Princess was an effort at a formal portrait. I originally had it in mind to do Grace Kelly, when she became a princess, but she's too beautiful for parody. If you try to do a parody of a woman like that, it won't look like her. Well, I did my best and finally I just wound up painting my idea of a Velázquez or a Gainsborough or something like that. It's a society portrait. When I was a kid, I once thought I might be a society portrait painter, but unfortunately nobody in Boston wanted me. I don't think I would have remained a portrait painter, but I certainly love the great portrait paintings, the Holbeins and the Van Dykes. It's generally thought that that cannot be done anymore - that you can't do a commissioned portrait that will please your customer and create a work of art. That's another 20th-century premise I don't accept. I think that's possible" (S.R. Frankel, ed., Jack Levine, New York, 1989, p. 94).