Eugene Berman Drawings

Eugene Berman (1899–1972) An untitled stage design, ink and wash on paper. French, circa 1950. Signed lower right: EB.

Gouache on paper costume design for Annabella, for the John Ford play: "Tis a Pity She's a Whore" by Eugene Berman signed with the cypher (E.B.), dated 1942 and annotated. Pencil ske...

Pen, ink and gouache on paper, painting "The Temple of Dendur' by Eugene Berman. Signed and dated, 1964. Framed size is 28.25 x 22.25.

This haunting image by Eugene Berman was painted on a sheet of paper cut in the shape of a heart, mounted to a paint-speckled ground, encircled with metal shavings, and placed in a frame of the artist’s own devising. Berman wrote the title, Radiograph of a Heart, on the back. It refers to the medical X-rays that doctors had recently come to rely on. Yet Berman’s point seems to be that while a heart can be monitored scientifically, the emotions associated with it lie beyond the power of medical science. Russian by birth, Berman fled St. Petersburg during the Revolution and settled in Paris. Later, as a Jew, he fled the Nazi advance and took refuge in New York and Hollywood. His peace of mind, however, was shattered by the suicide of his wife, actress Una Munson (who played Belle Watling in Gone With the Wind). That distressing event — “Don’t follow me” she admonished in her suicide note...