AL HIRSCHFELD (1903-2003)
Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in "Private Lives." Illustration for the 1983 Broadway revival of Noel Coward's play at the Lunt-Fontaine Theater, published in The New York Times, May 8, 1983. Pen, ink, and graphite on board, 1983. 685x533 mm; 27x21 inches. Ghosted remains of erased graphite composition still visible on portions of recto. Signed "Hirschfeld/Boston/ 5" in ink, lower right. Nested into recessed foam support; raw silk-covered matte and plain mahogany wood frame, Feiden Galleries label retained on original brown paper backing (now removed and folded, but included with lot).
Provenance: Margo Feiden Gallery; Kyle Renick, Artistic Director of the WPA Theatre, New York; private collection, New York.
Condition:
The Feiden Gallery inventory is written in pencil on verso: "Elizabeth Taylor & Richard Burton / `Private Lives' (ink) I #1312.
Some visible erasure on the recto, mostly around Taylor's face and both of their hands.
The graphite sketching is more visible than usual, but an intriguing and unusual find in Hirschfeld's finished drawings. Around the time this drawing was created, he began employing an electric eraser to save time and create cleaner backgrounds.
Footnotes:
Private Lives, short-lived but popular, due to its star appeal, opened on May 8th, 1983 and ran for 63 performances through July 17th. Hirschfeld perfectly captures the actors' grand personalities and dramatic style, still in full force in their mature careers. His graphite under-sketching, evident throughout, but mostly where he aims to render Ms. Taylor's bold head tilt, is faint but still visible and offers a glimpse into his artistic desire to craft the perfect composition.
Taylor was a great fan of Hirschfeld. She owned the cast drawing of her 1981 performance in "Little Foxes." The admiration was mutual: the artist drew her twenty times over the course of 56 years and inscribed many books to her.
David Leopold, Creative Director of the Al Hirschfeld Foundation, remarked that this work is notable because it was likely the last time Hirschfeld drew the same stage production for different papers. That practice was quite common up until 1943 when he was appearing regularly in at least three different New York City newspapers, but ended soon after. "Private Lives" appeared to be a later one-time exception when he drew the play for the The New York Times and a different but similarly composed version for the London Daily Mail.
