Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Al Hirschfeld was a renowned illustrator and caricaturist. Hirschfeld’s lifelong passion for the performing arts married his distinctive style with the vibrant personalities of New York’s theater scene. He was able to capture the character of his subjects with a simple line drawing. He recorded personalities as illustrious and diverse as Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Ernest Hemingway, Jerry Garcia, and Liza Minnelli, among many others, in a career spanning most of the twentieth century. Hirschfeld’s works were featured in several prominent publications including the New York Times, The New Yorker, and Rolling Stone. His portraits of Hollywood stars were also featured in several series of postage stamps in the United States.
Al Hirschfeld was most famous for his caricatures of actors, musicians, and other figures from the arts and public life. He himself preferred to be known as a “characterist.” After the birth of his…
The Russian Revolution initially encouraged a flowering of Jewish cultural activity, lifting restrictions on Jewish publishing. Jewish theater companies experimented with modernist approaches to stage…
This lithograph of a micrographic drawing, believed to be from Poland, reproduces the text of the scroll of Esther in its entirety, as well as prayers and poems for the holiday of Purim. In the center…