Here is a special find for the lover of mid-20th century American art and birds ... a terrific set of two framed lithographs, hand signed in pencil by artist Athos Menaboni. Here is what the Albany Museum of Art had to say about the well known Italian artist who lived and worked in the Atlanta, Georgia area and became famous for his naturalist paintings of over 150 American bird species during the 1940's and 50's, when they hosted a showing of his works in 2001.
Living on the Wind: The Bird Paintings of Athos Menaboni
Albany Museum of Art is pleased to announce that Living on the Wind: The Bird Paintings of 
Athos Menaboni will be on display in the Raymond F. Evans Sporting Art Gallery from March 30 through September 2, 2001
Athos Menaboni is widely regarded as one of the world's finest illustrators and painters of bird life and hailed by wildlife lovers, art collectors, and ornithologists alike as the twentieth-century Audubon. A significant figure in Atlanta art, Athos Menaboni built a monumental reputation, achieving nationwide fame in the 1940s and 1950s. Like Audubon, Menaboni's attentiveness to nature is both dramatic and enchanting. His art is widespread, appearing in major museums and private homes throughout the world. His artistic talent has been an inspiration to many. (left: Ruffled Grouse, c.1960, oil on paper, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Glenn Lewis)
Spanning a career lasting over sixty years, Menaboni's work professed his love for the more than 150 American birds he painted in their native surroundings. Working predominately from live bird studies, his delightful interpretations, rendered with integrity and love, capture the wondrous colors and details of nature. Through his intricate and meticulous analysis, one almost feels the artist's intimacy with the subjects he knew best-his beloved birds. His paintings offer the viewer more than just a glimpse into the wonders of the wild-he brings us closer to our fellow creatures. The artist himself said," You cannot improve on nature, you must capture it-and transfer it to canvas." (left: California Quail, c. 1950, oil on paper, Knoke Galleries of Atlanta)
These two wonderful lithographs of his work, depicting a pair of cardinals and a pair of red-winged blackbirds, were purchased from the estate of John E. Horton, a military official turned diplomat, who also worked as a consultant to Hollywood for the military on a wide range of movies including Top Gun , The Hunt for Red October and In the Line of Fire. He retired to Seabrook Island in the Charleston, SC area and passed away in 2006 at the age of 87. These prints are both stamped as part in his personal collection during the time he resided in Bethesda, Maryland as seen in my close up's of the backs. As also shown they are framed and ready for hanging "as is".
These two lithographs are in matching vintage gold frames which measure 25 1/2 inches tall by 21 1/2 inches wide. The exposed print within the matting measures 17 3/4 inches tall by 14 1/4 inches wide. The pictures of the birds are still vibrant and show off this talented artist's highly skilled work. There is some minor aging damage around the edges of the prints which appears to be some yellowing seeking from the old matting material. Reframing the prints eventually to preserve them from any further deterioration may be in order, but again, "as is" they are nicely framed pieces with age appropriate character.
Please visit my ebay store to see the variety of other antique and vintage collectibles I have available through separate auctions. I will combine shipping on multiple purchases as appropriate.
For additional information about the artist, below is an article from the NY Times in 1941, covering one of his showings.
Art: Menaboni's Birds
Monday, Oct. 20, 1941
Manhattan's bird-painting fans flocked last week to Fifth Avenue's Audubon House to cock their eyes and twitter over a new set of Southern bird pictures. Few bird lovers would crook their necks to look at a Rembrandt. But they will flock like wild geese to see a well-drawn picture of a roseate spoonbill's rump sticking out of a swamp. And these pictures were unusual, not only for the meticulous exactitude with which they depicted the spreading wings of buffleheads, warblers and herons, but for the realism with which they reproduced the iridescent sheen of their plumage. Painted in thin oil paint on specially processed illustration board, the portraits glowed like old Chinese lacquer.
The artist who painted them is a little, beak-nosed, birdlike Italo-American named Athos Menaboni who lives in Atlanta, where he takes time off from jobs as a muralist to range through the Georgia swamps and forests, hunting birds with a paintbrush. In six years Painter Menaboni has made 250 paintings of 97 native birds, says he has 150 more to do before using up the species Georgia has to offer.
Born in Leghorn, Athos Menaboni was sent to study at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Florence. He made his way to the U.S. as oiler on a freighter, spent several years decorating wax candles and painting posters in Manhattan's Greenwich Village. In the '20s he moved to Atlanta, met and married a girl from Rome (Ga.), started painting murals. When Tobacco Millionaire Dick Reynolds hired him to decorate a mansion on Sapelo Island, Ga., Painter Menaboni did a series of murals in which some of Reynolds' best friends appeared with the bodies of jungle animals. Sapelo Island was full of birds, and Menaboni started to paint them too.
Today he paints little else. On a hilly, wooded seven-acre farm about eight miles from Atlanta, he lives with his buxom wife, a family of wild turkeys, two Canada geese, three mallard ducks, a sparrow hawk, two pigeons and three quail. The turkeys roam all over the yard, crowd around him while he paints, begging for grapes which he throws them between brushstrokes. Armed with a .410 gun and a special hunting permit allowing him one pair of any Georgia species per year, he makes frequent trips to south Georgia to shoot and trap models for his pictures.
For his great U.S. predecessor, John James Audubon, Menaboni has the greatest reverence. Says he: "I have studied every Audubon I can find. He was a very great artist."
Back to home page
BBK6Ggjcfvw~~_14.JPG)
) 
Holy City Treasures
Print
Report item
and your 