Reuben Nakian (1897-1986) Original Etching Titled "Leda and the Swan" C.1980

Description

Reuben Nakian (1897-1986) Original Etching Titled "Leda and the Swan" c.1980

Pencil signed and lettered "HC" (Hors Commerce)

Plate dimensions … more Reuben Nakian (1897-1986) Original Etching Titled "Leda and the Swan" c.1980

Pencil signed and lettered "HC" (Hors Commerce)

Plate dimensions 16 3/4" X 13 3/4". Paper dimensions 20" x 17".

Frame dimensions 27" x 24 1/2". Very good condition.

Reuben Nakian was born in College Point, New York. Before 1911, he had briefly studied art before going to work for an advertising agency. In 1915 he attended, possibly one of the only schools at the time to have students studying modernist art, the Independent School of Art in New York City.

He then went on to study at the Robert Henri School with Homer Boss and A.S. Baylinson. He also studied at the Art Students League, apprenticed to Paul Manship, from 1916-1920, where he met Gaston Lachaise and became his studio assistant.

Beginning his career as a sculptor, Nakian associated with other Abstract Expressionists, becoming friends of Arshile Gorky and Willem DeKooning. This group of artist friends soon became the subject of a series of portrait busts in the early 1930s. He became famous in 1934 for his eight-foot-high plaster statue of Babe Ruth, which was later destroyed.

He was commissioned to create busts of Franklin D. Roosevelt and members of his cabinet, and in 1936 Nakian joined the WPA, Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project.

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