Existing comment:
William Auerbach-Levy, 1889-1964
When is a self-portrait not exactly a likeness?
William Auerbach-Levy gained fame from the 1920s through the 1940s as a caricaturist of literary and theatrical figures, artists, and movie stars. His drawings could be found for years in the New York World and other major publications. Auerbach- Levy also caricatured himself, showing his thinning hair, round face, and weak chin. In this drawing, he reveals an alter ego -- one who is broad shouldered, with a full head of thick hair -- the artist as he "should" look. This figure recurs in Auerbach-Levy's work, in the same pose and displaying the same features. Here, he is shown creating a modernist interpreta- tion of a house. In other sketches, the same artist character is seen caricaturing a nude model, or making a painfully thin model look like a modernist sculpture by Gaston Lachaise, or transforming a large-boned fleshy model into a svelte ideal.
Watercolor and ink on paper, c 1925 |