THE PAINTING ON BOARD AND THE NEWER FRAME ARE IN FINE CONDITION. PLEASE CHECK ALL OF THE PHOTOS.

WE WILL BE LISTING MORE PAINTINGS AND BOOKS.

LITTLE IS KNOWN ABOUT LOTAN LOTAN PRIOR TO 1952 WHEN HE ARRIVED IN ARIZONA IN AN MG ACCOMPANIED BY HIS GIRLFRIEND RUTH AND THEIR PET BULLDOG, SIR OLIVER CEDRIC. RUTH, WHO WOULD LATER BECOME HIS WIFE, WAS ALSO AN ARTIST. IN A LETTER THAT SAME YEAR TO CALIFORNIA ARTIST CLAUDE BUCK, LOTAN CLAIMS TO BE " LIVING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DESERT PAINTING LIKE NEVER BEFORE". HE GOES ON TO STATE IN THE LETTRR THE HE HAD RECENTLY CHANGED HIS NAME TO LOTAN LOTAN BECAUSE IT WAS PART OF " LOOSING (SIC) THE PAST AND BECOMING AN ENTIRELY NEW PERSON.... DOING MY BEST TO CREATE A NEW PAINTINH AS WELL AS A NEW PERSONALITY.
LOTAN EVIDENTLY HAD NO PROBLEM STRETCHING THE TRUTH TO HELP CREATE HIS NEW PERSONA. DURING HIS ARIZONS YEARS HE TYPICALLY SIGNED HIS PAINTINGS, LOTAN LOTAN, PHD, MD, EVEN THOUGH HE WAS NEITHER A PHD OR A MEDICAL DOCTOR. THROUGHOUT HIS LIFE HE CLAIMED TO HAVE RECEIVED DEGREES IN MEDICINE AND A PHD IN ART FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF BERLIN IN 1926. IN A 1966 INTERVIEW WITH THE CAREFREE ENTERPRISE HE RECOUNTS HOW HE USED TO OPERATE A MEDICAL CLINIC AND A PORTRAIT STUDIO SIDE BY SIDE IN LONDON. " AT THE SAME TIME I WAS TREATINH THE SOCIAL OUTCASTS OF THE SOHO DISTRICT, I WAS ALSO RECEIVING PORTAIT COMMISSIONS FROM THE ROYALTY AND POLITICAL NOBILITY OF EUROPE AND AMERICA". HE GOES ON IN THE INTERVIEW TO STATE THAT HE DID COMMISSIONED PORTRAITS OF KING GEORGE V OF ENGLAND, PRESIDENT WARREN HARDING. MRS. CALVIN COOLIDGE, AND GENERAL JOHN PERSHINH. NONE OF THIS HAS EVER BEEN SUBSTANTIATED AND IT IS IN ALL LIKELIHOOD FALSE. HE ALSO CLAIMED AT VARIOUS TIMES TO HAVE STUDIED AT THE JULIAN ACADEMY IN PARIS, THE KAISER FREDERICK MUSEUM IN BERLIN. AND THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SMDESIGN IN NEW YORK. NO EVIDENCE HAS EVER BEEN FOUND TO VALIDATE THESE CLAIMS.
IN SPITE OF LOTANS ELABORATEFABRICATIONS ABOUT HIS PAST CERTAIN BIOGRAPHICAL ASPECT ARE KNOWN FOR SURE. HE WAS BORN LOTAN S. WELSHANS ON JUNE 19, 1905 IN DANVILLE INDIANA. LOTAN NOTED ON NUMEROUS OCCASIONS THAT HE WAS BORN ON A FARM IN INDIANA.

MORE ON ASKART.

Image size is 16" x 20", frame measures 18 1/2" x 22 1/2".

ON THE BACK HAS TWO LABELS DETAILING THE PAINTING, PICTURED.