Attempted Bloggery: oil on canvas

Showing posts with label oil on canvas. Show all posts

Sunday, April 19, 2026

Alain [Daniel Brustlein]: Self-Portrait

Daniel Brustlein (1904-1996) was known to readers of The New Yorker as the cartoonist Alain. His signature collection is Alain's Steeplechase (1957). A self-portrait of his executed in oil on paper and sold on eBay early in 2020 is signed simply Brustlein.

The self-portrait shows the aritist surrounded by his paintings. The studio floor has tiles in a checkerboard pattern. The painter leaves the forms in an unresolved blur, and we are not sure whether we have quite seen him or not.

Daniel Brustlein's signature

The work is framed.

Alain [Daniel Brustlein]
eBay listing ended February 15, 2020

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Daniel-Brustlein-Alain-Autoportrait-Original-Oil-on-Paper-Painting-New-Yorker-/392362590977?hash=item5b5aa20301%3Ag%3Ajx8AAOSwyqhdQQip&nma=true&si=WEtIFz5%252FkfY9UxP8WWeB%252FCaqeVQ%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Alain [Daniel Brustlein]
eBay item descritpion

The work sold for a best offer somewhere less than $799.99.

[End of eBay listing]

Here, for comparison, is a photographic image of the artist. He definitely captured somthing of himself.

https://www.danielbrustlein.com/biography

This is his Wikipedia portrait:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Brustlein

Curiously, on the back dust cover to The New Yorker Album of Drawings 1925-1975, he is referred to as "Daniel Alain," but nowhere else does this combination of name and pseudonym appear in print.

The New Yorker Album of Drawings 1925-1975
Detail of rear dust jacket

https://www.ebay.com/itm/266426501507?/

You may wonder why I sometimes archive and hold on to eBay listings for years before proceeding to post them. I wonder as well.

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Saturday, August 10, 2024

Constantin Alajálov: Portrait of Mrs. Hugh Chisholm, Jr.

Constantin Alajálov (1900-1987) is best remembered for his illustrations which appeared on the covers of The New Yorker and The Saturday Evening Post. His 1954 portrait of Mrs. Hugh J. Chisholm, Jr., the former Rosemary Warburton (1920-1974), shows the socialite in profile. The painting, for which the subject apparently sat, looks very much like a commissioned piece yet it seems to have remained in the artist's hands. A label on the back indicates that Alajálov let the painting out on loan and expected its return.

Mrs. Hugh Chisholm, Jr.
Constantin Alajálov

Constantin Alajálov's signature

The art appeared on eBay in 2016. When there were no takers at $2,600, the price was reduced by 21%. I do not know the final disposition of the work.

Constantin Alajálov
eBay listing accessed December 6, 2016

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Alajalov-Constantin-Russian-American-1900-1987-Oil-Painting-Portrait-of-Woman-/281423323257?hash=item4186232079:g:UNwAAOSwQItT~Rkp

Constantin Alajálov
eBay item description

Note: What kind of work do illustrators such as Constantin Alajálov create when they're not working on covers for The Saturday Evening Post and The New Yorker? I'd like to use Attempted Bloggery as a showcase for original art by Alajálov that may not be quite so familiar as his magazine covers. Collectors, please share your art here.

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Friday, February 28, 2020

Peter Arno's Flyboy

New Yorker cartoonist Peter Arno usually worked on paper or illustration board to create his signature pieces. Occasionally he worked on canvas using oil paint, but it's rare to see such a painting of his come on the market. It's far more common, in fact, to see oils by the Parisian artist who shared his name. Still, on February 23 an oil painting of a World War II dogfight was offered at Clars Auction Gallery which is unlike any Arno painting we have seen before. An American fighter pilot is seen head on, guns a-blazing, while enemy aircraft fall out of the sky. The auction house dates the work to 1941. To make matters challenging, there is no other Arno oil on canvas available on the internet for comparison, at least none to my knowledge.

The signature looks to be Arno's, but there is a curious shadow effect as if the signature was overpainted and moved. Underneath the signature is the Army Air Corps insignia lacking, apparently, the central red circle one would expect in 1941.

Peter Arno
Clars Auction Gallery
February 23, 2020

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/painting-peter-arno-6350-c-8e9453d9f7

Eight bids raised the bidding from the $2,000 opening to a robust $3,750, but the reserve was apparently set precisely at the low estimate of $4,000. (The only time I have ever heard booing at an auction was in response to this practice of setting the reserve at the low estimate, which is the highest price permissible and is not considered very sporting of the seller.) Thus the lot was bought in or passed and everyone's time was wasted over a single bid increment.

Clars Auction Gallery Bidding History

Is the somewhat nondescript fighter pilot depicted wearing goggles identifiable as an Arno figure? There certainly isn't much to go on. Nevertheless, I offer the New Yorker cover of September 3, 1966 in a different medium as a comparison:

Peter ArnoThe New Yorker, September 3, 1966

The details compared:

Note: Anyone with additional knowledge of this piece or of its publication history, if any, should get in touch. Peter Arno oils are rarities. I would be happy to publish any (provided that are not by the French artist Peter Arno). Original Arno works that are new to the internet are of course always welcome here.

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Peter Arno

World War II

Oils on Canvas

Attempted Bloggery's Soaring Index

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Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Ed Arno's Blind Beggar

Ed Arno's 1985 oil on canvas Blind Man Begging shows the hazard of not being able to see where the money is going. It was offered for sale on eBay in 2013, eventually selling for $49. Two years earlier it had sold at auction for a more robust $225.