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Artur Rubinstein

Al Hirschfeld American
1981
Not on view
As a young man Hirschfeld studied painting, and worked only intermittently as a caricaturist. By the 1940s, he had developed a style that relied on expressive, looped strokes and little or no shading. Hirschfeld mastered lithography as a student in Paris in the 1920s and continued to make prints throughout his career. This 1981 lithograph of pianist Artur Rubinstein demonstrates a late preference for reducing forms to their essentials. The body is formed from a simple triangle, used to support a thoughtful head and two dynamic hands. Few lines were needed to describe the features: the ear is an X within a C, while the hands, characteristically enlarged, embody the ninety-four-year-old Rubenstein’s still vital musicality.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Artur Rubinstein
  • Artist: Al Hirschfeld (American, St. Louis, Missouri 1903–2003 New York)
  • Date: 1981
  • Medium: Lithograph
  • Dimensions: 20-3/4 x 19 inches (52.5 x 48.5 cm)
  • Classification: Prints
  • Credit Line: John B. Turner Fund, 2008
  • Object Number: 2008.290
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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