Morris Hirschfield, Stage Beauties, 1944, Metropolitan Museum of Art
A cofounder of a women’s coat and suit company, Hirshfield began making art at age sixty-five. His focus and methods in painting extended from his skills as a tailor. Depicting mainly female nudes and women performers, Hirshfield often prepared full-scale drawings of his compositions and traced them onto his canvases as stencil patterns. This process remains visible in Stage Beauties: the pencil tracing marks can be seen through the paint layer. Influential gallery owner Sidney Janis propelled Hirshfield to fame after he discovered the self-taught artist’s work in New York
Morris Hirschfield, Stage Beauties, 1944, Metropolitan Museum of Art
A cofounder of a women’s coat and suit company, Hirshfield began making art at age sixty-five. His focus and methods in painting extended from his skills as a tailor. Depicting mainly female nudes and women performers, Hirshfield often prepared full-scale drawings of his compositions and traced them onto his canvases as stencil patterns. This process remains visible in Stage Beauties: the pencil tracing marks can be seen through the paint layer. Influential gallery owner Sidney Janis propelled Hirshfield to fame after he discovered the self-taught artist’s work in New York