Featured Louis Lupas Artist

Louis Lupas is known for his detailed drawings of famous people. I picked up two at auction from the estate of sci-fi writer Alfred Bester.

These two look vaguely familiar. I just can't place the names. The first one HAS the last name of the subject, I can only make out the first letter S. Lupas wrote To our dearest friends the S... from the ???? L Lupas 6/18/33

Do either of these people look familiar? I'm sure he drew average citizens. But, his specialty was the famous. The inscribed one is so familiar.

 

IMHO, the second portrait is Arturo Toscanini.

 

The second one reminds me of the famous composer Arturo Toscanini.

 

The first one could arguably be 50/50 chance the poet Gerhart Hauptmann,albeit younger & smiling.I couldn't find one shot of him smiling.

 

from the Lupases To the Snelkins?

 

THANK YOU! I think you're all correct. Because there was a third drawing that I didn't win of Johannes Brahms. Both composers.

That is a possibility. They look similar. I'll have to look through the auction lots again. There were a lot of book lots.

 

Thought Toscanini was famous for his conducting, not composing.

 

Bester's book 'The Demolished Man' won the first Hugo award,it's quite a work.

 

I had to read Gerhart Hauptmann in a class once. A play, as I recall. Hyacinths and death, as I recall. Nothing really to smile about, I guess.

 

Too bad. The other ones are very good of course, but the Brahms portrait makes an impact.

 

Something funky going on here. Lupas' work is widely reproduced and not all of it appears to have been drawn from life (or even in the sitter's lifetime.)

Debora

 

Bet this is a source for many of his musical portraits.

Debora

 

I know nothing about the art, but someone said Alfred Bester. That's a name to conjure with.

 

That could be. The name comes from music. I thought composer.

I did want that one. But, it was at a price I didn't want to pay hours before the auction began. The one that is not positively identified is inscribed. That I really wanted. I collect autographs.

Someone had written that Lupas had a lot of people sit for him. But, Brahms was dead before Lupas was born. His drawings of many celebrities come from famous photos of them.

I can kick myself. I'd have bid on this book. It was up in the auction. I didn't even think about it. I have to see if my library can interloan it from somewhere. They're great at that.

 

My slim detective skills solved one mystery, WHO the drawing was inscribed to. It also explains (in a logical sense) how it got to where it was.

This is almost exact to what's on my drawing, just clearer. This is from the book Lupas did the illustrations for Artists In Music Of Today, which was also given to the family.

To our dear friends the Soulkos - with fondest thoughts from the Lupases.

By removing the S and making it a lower case G (g) used as a capital letter, the name is now Goulkos. Remove the plural S and it's Goulko.

Alfred married Rolly Goulko in 1936. She's always been known as Rolly Bester. These drawings and book must have come from her family. They knew Lupas, not Alfred Bester. They were passed down to her.

They are still fantastic, and they hung in his home with his wife till she passed away. He kept them.

I'm actually kind of proud that I could figure this out on my own. For everyone that helped identify the other two, THANK YOU.