The Illustrations for Plays and Unpublished Books
Detail
from The Magic Sound |
Not
only were there books of reproductions of my father's drawings, and
the illustrations for a few published books, but he also did the illustrations
for numerous plays and monographs which were never produced or published.
And in these illustrations he showed his characters as they appeared
either on stage or in his imagination. Here is a small sampling from a large collection of illustrations.
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The 1940's
The Funny Tragedy
(A Play. Water Colors: 11 x 16 1/2")
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Saint Peter |
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Saint Antoninus |
Saint Mary of Egypt
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First and Third Acts
Second Act Stage
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Mohammed
(A Biography. Water Colors: 15 x 18". Pen Drawings: 11 x 14")
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Life in Manhattan
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Arriving from Spain at the end of the Spanish Civil War my father was fascinated by New York, which was so different from Madrid and anything he knew in Europe. Life in Manhattan was his poetic/artistic commentary on the myriad scenes he saw out on the streets. The drawings are a very realistic portrayal (perhaps some of the most accurate) of life in Manhattan in the early 1940s. There are also at least 140 small sketches, on scraps of paper, remaining: hasty studies performed out on the sidewalk. The illustrations for the book included eleven 13 1/4 x 9 1/4" lithographs and one 17 x 21" lithograph, as well as a water color.
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| Subway |
Rockefeller Center |
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Crowd
in Harlem |
Museum of Modern Art |
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Show Window - University Place |
Boogie Woogie at Cafe Society Click on Image to Enlarge |
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The Magic Sound of the Harmonica
(A Play. Water Colors: approx 14 x 21")
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The Stage for The Magic Sound of the Harmonica
Late 40s or Early 50s
Edgar Allen Poe
1950s
The
Marywind's Tales
(Water Colors and Pen on Paper: 9 1/2 x 11 3/4")
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"He wrote novels, plays, and histories, and even a children's book, which I vividly remember because I typed up the translation for him. It was a lengthy book entitled The Marywind's Tales and tells of the adventures of a little boy named Billy who is visited in his bed at night by a tiny horse, Pegasy, and a tiny bear, Ursy, who lead him out the window into the night sky and carry him off on several adventures in which he meets such characters as Eversad and Everglad and the Old Town Crier and where in a place called Loafland he receives the Flower of Harmony from Marywind, the wise narrator of the tales." From Waiting at the Shore |
Billy, Ursy, and Pegasy
1960's
The Gothic Devil
(Paris. 1960. Pen on paper: 13 x 17")
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