" Portrait of Louisa Livingston Gump ".
Original charcoal on heavy beige rag oatmeal paper with red, white and grey pastel: signed and dated lower right - " Max Wieczorek '14 ". image size: 26 inches by 19 inches: affixed to back of frame is a letter from Marilyn Gump, great granddaughter of the sitter discussing her grandmother: ( framed ).
NOTE: This work is in excellent original condition: It is beautifully framed under glass in its original period Florentine style heavy hardwood frame with closed hand engraved and antiqued silver leafed corners ( cost have of such a hand tooled custom frame made today would be easily be over $1,000: frame size is 31 1/2 by 24 1/2 inches ). Odd white and light spots in my photos are from glass reflections only: Actual artwork is clear and even toned throughout as in my third and fourth photos taken at an angle.
Louisa Gump was the wife of Solomon Gump, the founder of the famed luxury department store, S & G Gump Co. ( today known as Gumps ) in 1861. Louisa is credited with bringing the company to international fame by bringing back from Europe and Asia huge quantities of rare porcelains to offer to the new rich in San Francisco associated with the gold rush boom. Louisa's brother in law was the celebrated baron Georges-Eugene Haussmann, secretary to Napoleon lll, known as the " Architect of Paris ".
Max Wieczorek was born in Breslau, Germany in 1863. Wieczorek studied art in Germany and Italy with Ferdinand Keller and Max Thedy. While in Europe, he worked in oil and exhibited landscapes in leading European capitals. After serving in the Prussian Army, he immigrated to America in 1893.
While living in NYC, he married and worked as a stained glass designer for Louis C. Tiffany until 1908 when he settled in Los Angeles. He continued designing stained glass but soon turned to executing charcoal and pastel portraits of notable Americans for which he gained national fame. Member: Considered one of America's most important portrait painters, Wieczoreks' portraits are represented in the National Portrait Gallery ( Smithsonian ). Wieczorek's incisive spontaneous Neoclassical style portraits have been compared to the works of the old masters, including Ingres, Rubens and Van Dyck. Louisa Gump's Nepoleonic connection is interesting in view of Wieczoreks' stylistic similarities to Ingres' master portraits of the Empress Josephine.
REF: see " Max Wieczorek - His life & Work" by Everett Maxwell: Pan Pacific International Expo 1915: Who Was Who in American Art: Llaguna Beach Art Museum: Springfield Art Museum: Artists of the American West: Dawdy: Mallett: Index of Artists: Hughes: Artists in California: Gerdts: Art Across America: Falk: Dictionary of Signatures: Fieldings Dict.: Moure: California Art: McClelland: Tiffany Archive.
Wieczoreks' associations and honors are vast, including membership and awards from the Calif. Art Club; Laguna Beach AA; Calif. WC Society; NY WC Society; Painters of the West; Painters & Sculptors of LA; Artland Club; Int'l Bookplate Assn; AAPL; AFA; Foundation of Western Art (cofounder, pres.). Exh: PRIE, 1915; Panama-Calif. Int'l Expo (San Diego), 1915 (silver medal); SFAA, 1916-18; LACMA, 1918 (solo); Calif. Art Club, 1918-20 (prizes); Arizona State Fair, 1920, 1922 (prizes); Laguna Beach AA, 1920 (prize); Friday Morning Club (LA), 1922; Calif. WC Society, 1923 (prize); Int'l Bookplate Ass'n, 1926 (prize); Calif. State Fair, 1927 (2nd prize); Pacific SW Expo, 1928 (gold medal); San Diego FA Gallery, 1928. In: Gardena (CA) High School; Orange Co. (CA) Museum; LACMA; Union Chaffey High School (Ontario, CA); Athletic Club (LA); LA City Hall. Los Angeles Painters of the 1920s; WWA; Max Wieczorek: His Life and Work; SCA; So. Calif. Artists 1890-1940; AAA 1919-33; AAW; WWAA 1936-53; WWC 1942.
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