Framed Vintage Hand Watercolored John Haymson (1902-1980) Lithograph "Dock Street Theatre, Charleston SC". In frame measures 16.50x20.50x.50. Weight is 3 pds 8 oz. PROVENANCE: A Charleston SC Private Estate. John Haymson was born of a Turkish father and Italian mother in Vienna, Austria in 1902.  He discovered his interest in art when at the age of five he took a slate and drew a portrait of the mademoiselle who came to his house each day to teach him and his brother and sister. At age sixteen, in spite of his mother's concern that he would starve to death as an artist, he applied to and was accepted at the world-famed Vienna Academy of Fine Art.  He later studied with and subsequently befriended Luigi Kasimir, one of the great master etchers of recent times. An important period in Haymson's early career was his association with the famous theatrical impresario, Max Reinhardt, for whom he executed stage and costume designs in Salzburg. In the early 1930's he traveled throughout Europe extensively and studied graphics in Germany and Paris. He was employed during this time in the textile industry painting designs for silk fabrics. While in Germany he met Hilde Opfer and they married in 1934. In 1938 Haymson and his wife were forced to leave their families and all their belongings behind because of Hitler and mounting anti-Semitism in Austria. Days before the Gestapo came knocking on their door, they escaped the Holocaust, fleeing his beloved Austria, on foot, first to Hungary, then to Italy, and finally to Yugoslavia. There Haymson and his wife, under almost constant threat of exposure and arrest, awaited visas to the U.S which were time after time intercepted, stolen or confiscated. They avoided arrest by him painting portraits of Nazi sympathizers and police and military officials and their families. Finally, bribing an embassy official in Zagreb, they obtained their visas and made their way to France where they sailed from Le Havre, on the Ile de France, to the U.S. in late 1939. In the United States Haymson worked for five very exciting years on movie synopsises for Warner Brothers. For an ensuing seven years he taught painting at New York's Parsons School of Design, while conducting student art groups to Austria, France, Israel, Greece and Mexico during the summers. At that same time he established his studio on 46th street in Manhattan and embarked on what was to become a very successful period of his life. John Haymson's remarkable talent has had a major impact on twentieth century art. His contribution, which spanned several decades. In the 1960's and 70's his lithographs, and in particular his watercolors, enjoyed huge popularity. It is an accepted fact that he was the Country's most widely reproduced and sold artist of the time. Represented by the New York Graphic Society and Aaron Ashley, Inc., his works were sold all over the world. Ref: Johnhaymson.com

good- vintage