96 - LAWRENCE LEBDUSKA (AMERICAN 1894-1966)

LAWRENCE LEBDUSKA (AMERICAN 1894-1966) Eve in the Garden, 1964 oil on canvas 76.2 x 50.8 cm (30 x 20 in.) framed dimensions: 95.4 x 69.9 cm (37 1/2 x 27 1/2 in) signed and dated lower left PROVENANCE Estate of Laura Israel Her sale, Litchfield County Auctions, Litchfield, CT, November 2002 Acquired from the above by the present owner LOT NOTES In Eve in the Garden, Lawrence Lebduska turns the Garden of Eden into one of his exotic menageries. A dark-haired Eve leans against the trunk of a fruit-laden tree, half hidden by a flowering vine. A spotted cat crouches in the branches above her, taking the place of the serpent. A giraffe and a zebra graze calmly in the meadow. Lebduska outlines his forms crisply and fills them with flat, saturated color, a habit from his early training in stained glass. The painting belongs to a small group of nudes from his final years, two of which, both dated 1964, are now in the American Folk Art Museum. Lebduska was born in Baltimore in 1894 and raised in Leipzig, where he learned the stained-glass trade from his father. He returned to the United States in 1912 and settled in New York the following year. There he painted decorative murals for the interior designer Elsie de Wolfe and painted easel pictures on his own. His first one-man show, in 1936, nearly sold out, and it is often credited with prompting Abby Aldrich Rockefeller to begin her celebrated folk art collection. Lebduska was shown alongside John Kane, Morris Hirshfield and Horace Pippin as one of America’s leading self-taught painters, and he worked for the WPA Federal Art Project. Keywords: Self-taught Artist, American Folk Art, Naive Painting, Garden of Eden, Lebduska Nude, Exotic Animals N.B. Condition reports are available upon request. All lots are sold in as-is condition at the time of sale. Please note that any condition statement regarding works of art is given as a courtesy to our clients in order to assist them in assessing the condition. The report is a genuine opinion held by Shapiro Auctions & Appraisals LLC and should not be treated as a statement of fact. The absence of a condition report or a photograph does not preclude the absence of defects or restoration, nor does a reference to particular defects imply the absence of any others. Shapiro Auctions & Appraisals, LLC., including its consultants and agents, shall have no responsibility for any error or omission.