William Heath Robinson

Kelpie of Snooziepool - English Romantic Whimsical Fantasy Ink Watercolor

1923 circa

"They paved paradise and put up a parking lot," Joni Mitchell said. - - Created in 1969, at the dawn of the American environmental movement, artist Richard Erdoes draws a sequential narrative in the form of a coil. From inception to destruction, it illustrates a list of things that humans are doing to destroy the world we live in. The work was commissioned for school-age humans and executed in a whimsically comic way. Yet the underlying narrative is sophisticated and foreshadows a world that could be on the brink of ecological disaster. Graphically and conceptually, this work exhibits an endless amount of creativity and Erdoes cartoony style is one to fall in love with. Signed lower right. Unframed 12.4 inches Width: 12.85 inches Height is the live area. Board is 16x22 inches. Richard Erdoes (Hungarian Erdős, German Erdös; July 7, 1912 – July 16, 2008) was an American artist, photographer, illustrator and author. Early life Erdoes was born in Frankfurt,to Maria Josefa Schrom on July 7, 1912. His father, Richárd Erdős Sr., was a Jewish Hungarian opera singer who had died a few weeks earlier in Budapest on June 9, 1912.After his birth, his mother lived with her sister, the Viennese actress Leopoldine ("Poldi") Sangora,He described himself as "equal parts Austrian, Hungarian and German, as well as equal parts Catholic, Protestant and Jew..."[4] Career He was a student at the Berlin Academy of Art in 1933, when Adolf Hitler came to power. He was involved in a small underground paper where he published anti-Hitler political cartoons which attracted the attention of the Nazi regime. He fled Germany with a price on his head. Back in Vienna, he continued his training at the Kunstgewerbeschule, now the University of Applied Arts, Vienna.[5] He also wrote and illustrated children's books and worked as a caricaturist for Tag and Stunde, anti-Nazi newspapers. After the Anschluss of Austria in 1938 he fled again, first to Paris, where he studied at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere, and then London, England before journeying to the United States. He married his first wife, fellow artist Elsie Schulhof (d. xxxx) in London, shortly before their arrival in New York City. In New York City, Erdoes enjoyed a long career as a commercial artist, and was known for his highly detailed, whimsical drawings. He created illustrations for such magazines as Stage, Fortune, Pageant, Gourmet, Harper's Bazaar, Sports Illustrated, The New York Times, Time, National Geographic and Life Magazine, where he met his second wife, Jean Sternbergh (d. 1995) who was an art director there. The couple married in 1951 and had three children.[6] Erdoes also illustrated many children's books. An assignment for Life in 1967 took Erdoes to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation for the first time, and marked the beginning of the work for which he would be best known. Erdoes was fascinated by Native American culture, outraged at the conditions on the reservation and deeply moved by the Civil Rights Movement that was raging at the time. He wrote histories, collections of Native American stories...

"Shine On, Virginia Woolf!" Cover illustration for The New York Times Book Review, published June 8, 1997. Airbrush on paper with mylar overlay with mar...

Mid 20th Century drawing and watercolour of Rue St Rustique in Paris. The drawing is titled and signed bottom left but the signature is as yet undeciphered. Unframed but with a cut card mount. A charming view of one of the oldest streets in Montmartre and Paris leading up to the iconic Sacré-Coeur Basilica. The artist has captured all the charm of this treasured view. They have shown a mastery of their art and wonderful handling of the drawing and watercolour. A lovely evocative painting that would grace any collection or interior. This street in the old village of Montmartre, which existed before the eleventh century as a path, later became an alley that served as a boundary between the seigneuries of Saint-Denis and Montmartre. Called "rue Notre-Dame" around 1516, it is indicated on the map of Jouvin de Rochefort of 1672 as a road. It was classified as part of the Parisian road network by a decree of 23 May...

Les Andelys by Ludovic-Rodo Pissarro (1878-1952) Watercolour and ink on paper 28 x 38 cm (11 x 15 inches) Inscribed, dated and signed lower left, Les Andel...