Al Hirschfeld drew big and he sent his big theater caricatures to the New York Times in big envelopes. He addressed such envelopes to Arts & Leisure art director Andrea Stevens on the third floor of the Times building. He affixed a return address label and added a stylized self-portrait.
Illustrator Stephen Kroninger, who himself did work for the Times, has one such envelope framed on his wall and he provided the photographs seen here. He writes:
I didn't work with her [Stevens]. The AD I did work with wanted a piece of mine so I traded it to her for the Hirschfeld envelope. Actually had to get the first replaced. It was in my studio and the assistant I had cut it up to mail artwork to someone. The AD was nice and gave me the one you see here to replace it.
Al Hirschfeld's birthday is coming up on Monday. His dates are June 21, 1903 to January 20, 2003.
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I looked up Al Hirschfield's old address (as per his label) and found some old real estate agent advertisements. The living room features a Hirschfield mural. I wonder if this was installed by the artist himself when in residence?
ReplyDeleteThat seems likely.
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