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Johann Berthelsen, 1883-1972Johann Berthelsen, Times Sq, Period Oil Painting of New York City 1883-1972circa 1970
circa 1970
About the Item
An oil painting on panel by artist Johann Berthelsen that showcases a view of Times Square in the Winter in New York City. Painting image measure 12 x 9 approximately 16 x 12 framed as is. Has been cleaned and varnished with no known restoration.
This painting comes out of my private collection with an embossed stamped certified certificate from the Berthelsen Conservany in Milwaukee Wisconsin by the artists son Lee.
Below is copied from an article written by Jim Stangl in 2014:
For as much as Lee Berthelsen knows about the career of his Impressionist painter father, the sheer output of his work remains a guess.
"We have never been able to come up with a number, but I can tell you it's somewhere between 5,000 and 12,000 paintings," Lee said.
Johann Berthelsen's favorite subject was New York in the snow, with skyline scenes of concrete and steel softened by gently falling flakes.
And among his many famous buyers was Frank Sinatra, who once paid Johann to paint a portrait of Ava Gardner's dog. After Gardner died in 1990, auctioneers of her estate tried to claim Sinatra himself had captured the dog on canvas, but Lee knew better and authenticated it as his father's work.
Lee is 79 and lives on Milwaukee's east side. He retired in 2003 as president of Marcus Hotels and Resorts.
But Johann had claimed Wisconsin roots first. Born in Copenhagen in 1883, he came to the United States with his mother and siblings after his parents divorced. He was raised in Manitowoc and maintained family ties to that city throughout his life.
As a kind of homecoming 42 years after his death, an exhibition of Johann Berthelsen's work is running now through Jan. 18 at the Rahr-West Art Museum in Manitowoc. It includes more than 40 oils, pastels and other artwork from Lee's collection.
We all like to think someone, perhaps one of our children, will preserve our memory in some tangible form. Johann got that in a big way from Lee, who in 2009 established the Johann Berthelsen Conservancy in Milwaukee.
The website says it's devoted to tracking, assembling and promoting Johann's artworks, sharing his story and providing authentication to root out copies and counterfeits. His New York scenes in particular are, in Lee's words, "wonderfully sellable and very collectible," and some have sold at auction for more than $50,000.
In the 1980s, a museum in Indianapolis organized a show of Berthelsen works, and Lee determined that nearly all of the 55 paintings were fakes.
"My dad has been forged. It's mind-boggling to me. I have personally come across the last 35 years maybe a little under 500 forgeries," he said.
Johann Berthelsen was a man of many talents, but just a fifth-grade education. He had nowhere to go but up after working as an assistant to a grave digger in Manitowoc. He moved to Chicago at age 18 and honed his rich baritone voice, eventually touring in operas and concerts.
Later, he taught voice and, in 1920, moved to New York where he worked with many distinguished students. He married in 1928, and he and his wife, Helenya, struggled to feed and house their three children during the Great Depression as the teaching business dried up.
Painting, which had been a hobby, now provided at least some income for Johann, even if it was just a dollar at a time. When the economy improved, so did his sales. Johann hooked up with a gallery owner in Manhattan who introduced him to many famous clients, including Sinatra, who owned 30 Berthelsen works.
As a teen and young man, Lee worked for his father for about 15 years, stretching his canvases onto wooden frames, washing brushes and setting out paint palettes just so for the next day. Lee still marvels that his dad could finish an oil portrait in less than half an hour.
Louis Armstrong commissioned Johann to paint the Paramount Theatre on Broadway to celebrate his opening there. But when he came to the house to view the finished work, he was disappointed that the theater marquee did not show his name. Johann explained he was an Impressionist painter, not a photographer.
"Hey, I'll do it," Lee chimed in. He was about 19 at that time in the 1950s.
Go ahead, Armstrong told him. "So this painting is totally by my dad, except on the marquee it says 'Louis Armstrong and his trumpet.' I painted that on the marquee," Lee said.
Dag Hammarskjold was secretary-general of the United Nations when he commissioned Johann to paint an image of the U.N. building in New York. He wanted it to exude peacefulness. "It's a reminder that if I do my job, I will help bring tranquillity to the world," he told the artist.
At least two famous couples supposedly fought over their Berthelsen paintings when they divorced in the 1960s. Lee heard that about Ernest Borgnine's 32-day marriage to Ethel Merman, and also about Dinah Shore and George Montgomery, all names now slowly slipping into obscurity.
Johann Berthelsen painted the New York skyline for 50 years. In 1971, he was struck and seriously injured by a hit-and-run driver in Manhattan. He tried to continue painting, sometimes with a brush tied to his hand.
He died on Easter Sunday in 1972. His ashes were taken up in a plane and scattered over the Statue of Liberty, Central Park and other New York landmarks, not unlike the snow that endlessly fascinated his artistic eye.
ARTIST'S STATEMENT
I have been in the art business as an artist and dealer since the early 80's. Almost 40 years now. I primarily concentrate on my own art. My art is derived in a variety of ways. I'm a responder. I respond to light, color, design, etc and I love painting both outdoors on location and in the studio under a controlled environment. I try to convey an idea, mood or just simply a beautiful setting. I'm inspired by a wide variety of subject matter and styles of painting and do not adhere to just one way.
My paintings have won numerous awards over the years and have been collected both nationally and internationally. They can be found in three museum collections, the White House Collection and many private collections.
- Creator:Johann Berthelsen, 1883-1972 (1883 - 1972, American)
- Creation Year:circa 1970
- Dimensions:Height: 16 in (40.64 cm)Width: 12 in (30.48 cm)Depth: 2 in (5.08 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:In ready to hang condition and has been cleaned and varnished with no restoration known.
- Gallery Location:Chesterfield, NJ
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU1254112584802
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