Albert
Hirschfeld (June 21, 1903 –
January 20, 2003) was an American caricaturist best
known for his black and white portraits of celebrities and Broadway stars. Al Hirschfeld was born in a two-story
duplex at 1313 Carr Street in St. Louis, and later moved with his family to New York City,
where he received his art training at the Art Students League of New
York. Following a divorce from Florence Ruth Hobby, in 1943, he
married Broadway actress/performer Dolly Haas. Haas died from ovarian cancer in 1994, aged 84.
They had one child, a daughter, Nina (b. 1945). In 1996, he married Louise
Kerz, a theatre historian. n 1924, Hirschfeld traveled to Paris and London,
where he studied painting, drawing and sculpture. When he returned to the
United States, a friend, fabled Broadway press agent Richard Maney, showed one of Hirschfeld's
drawings to an editor at the New York Herald Tribune,
which got Hirschfeld commissions for that newspaper and then, later, The New York Times. Hirschfeld's
style is unique, and he is considered to be one of the most important figures
in contemporary drawing and caricature, having influenced countless artists,
illustrators, and cartoonists. His caricatures were regularly drawings of pure
line in black ink, for which he used a genuine crow quill.
Readers of The New York Times and
other newspapers prior to the time they printed in color will be most familiar
with the Hirschfeld drawings that are black ink on white illustration board.
However, there is a whole body of Hirschfeld's work in color. Hirschfeld's full-color paintings were
commissioned by many magazines, often as the cover. Examples are TV Guide, Life Magazine, American Mercury, Look Magazine, The New York Times
Magazine, The New Masses, and Seventeen Magazine.
He also illustrated many books in color, most notably among them Harlem
As Seen By Hirschfeld, with text by William Saroyan. He was commissioned by CBS to
illustrate a preview magazine featuring the network's new TV programming in
fall 1963. One of the programs was Candid Camera, and Hirschfeld's caricature of the show's
host Allen Funt outraged Funt so much he threatened to leave
the network if the magazine were issued.[ Hirschfeld prepared a
slightly different likeness, perhaps more flattering, but he and the network
pointed out to Funt that the artwork prepared for newspapers and some other
print media had been long in preparation and it was too late to withdraw it. Funt
relented but insisted that what could be changed would have to be. Newsweek ran a squib on the controversy.[