Today David from Manhattan contributes images of a paper restaurant napkin drawn upon by none other than Saul Steinberg (1914-1999). David has spent some considerable time and effort researching this napkin and now he reports his findings to us here. He writes:
This pen and brown ink profile, on a 13 ¼ x10 inch brown napkin, dated April 1946, turned up in late 2010 on eBay, accompanied by a first edition of All In Line, which had come out the year before the drawing.
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| Saul Steinberg Napkin inscribed "FOR MIKE with LOVE/ST./April 46" |
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| Detail of a woman in profile from All in Line (1945) |
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| Saul Steinberg All in Line (1945) |
As the successful buyer, I found out from the seller that it had been part of the estate of Michael B. Knudsen (1911-2010) of Kendall Park, N.J., and was sold, per the instructions of his widow, Sabrina Beaver Knudsen, at a local auction that same year. An on-line obituary included a heartfelt note from Annelise Fjeld Knutsen (correct spelling—not my typo) of Norway, calling Michael “The great American novel in person,” and who answered a letter I sent her. She had no information on the Steinberg drawing or MK’s friendship with the artist, but she had this to say about her father’s second cousin: “Mike was larger than life. He was a painter (he told me that one of his paintings was in a museum in Athens, Ga.), he was an actor (a friend of Henry Fonda, babysitting Jane and Peter), he wrote screenplays (none of them turned into films/plays), he produced men’s cologne…BUT he had sort of a restless, joyful way of living that prevented him from holding focus on one thing. He described himself as a ‘Jack of all trades and master of none.’” A little on-line searching confirmed much of this. In the inventory of the Georgia Museum of Art there is an undated Gouache Abstract by Knudsen (and incorrectly calling him Swedish) which according to curator Sarah Kate Gillespie, was a 1948 gift of Hazel Guggenheim McKinley, a friend of the museum’s founder, Alfred Holbrook, and also Peggy Guggenheim’s sister and Michael’s long-time lover (this last tidbit comes from Ms. Knutsen, not Sarah Kate).
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| Michael Knudsen's Gouache Abstract in the collection of the Georgia Museum of Art "Image not available" |
Mr. Knudsen also had uncredited parts in two Robert Walker films: "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" (1944) and "The Clock" (1945). In 1957 he created a cologne for men, Gravel, which is no longer made, but still has a serious following, not to mention a flattering website, “Gravel A Man’s Cologne” that features numerous photos of Michael and the story of his “vibrant classic,” which included actual gravel at the bottom of each bottle. I also found a copyrighted booklet, Interlocking rug sections and padding for do-it-yourself wall-to-wall carpeting, also from 1957, and most likely not screenplay material.
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| https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/saul-steinberg-joel-smith/1111812857 |
The year Steinberg made his drawing is also of interest. According to the Chronology at the back of Joel Smith’s Saul Steinberg: Illuminations (2006), Steinberg belonged “to a regular crowd of artists, designers, writers, and architects who socialize at Del Pezzo, a midtown Manhattan restaurant.” From June ‘46 on, he left New York and traveled widely. Del Pezzo is not mentioned again. If I ever have an opportunity to examine Steinberg’s appointment book from that period at Yale, I might discover if Steinberg had dinner with “Mike” one night in April, or if it was merely an unplanned encounter. At least one photo of Hazel Guggenheim I located is reminiscent of the woman on the napkin, which raises the question of whether Knudsen was by himself that evening at Del Pezzo.
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| Hazel Guggenheim |
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| Detail of profile |
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| Michael Knudsen and Hazel Guggenheim |
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| Michael Knudsen Work on paper |
How much longer Michael Knudsen’s art career lasted, I have no idea, but examples of his work turn up from time to time on eBay, and were probably part of the same 2010 New Jersey auction that sold the napkin (including two pieces currently offered by a seller from Scotch Plains). I suspect that Knudsen’s friendship with Steinberg, despite the warmth of the inscription, was not long term; the Steinberg Foundation has no information on him.
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| Detail of napkin inscription |
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| Saul Steinberg's signature on a brown paper napkin |
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| Saul Steinberg "Pencil Sketch" eBay Listing Ended December 7, 2010 |
Note: My sincere thanks to David from Manhattan for contributing the photographs in today's post and contextualizing them with all his research. This is David's thirty-fifth contribution to the blog for those who like to keep score at home.
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