![[EINSTEIN, Albert (1879-1955)] – Josef Scharl (1896-1954). Bildnis Albert Einstein, silkscreen print signed by the sitter ('A. Einstein'; bottom left) and the artist ('Jos. Scharl'; bottom right), 1946.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2019/CKS/2019_CKS_17200_0575_000(einstein_albert_josef_scharl_bildnis_albert_einstein_silkscreen_print060912).jpg?w=1)
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[EINSTEIN, Albert (1879-1955)] – Josef Scharl (1896-1954). Bildnis Albert Einstein, silkscreen print signed by the sitter ('A. Einstein'; bottom left) and the artist ('Jos. Scharl'; bottom right), 1946.
390 x 340mm.
Einstein adds his signature to an expressive portrait caricature completed by his friend Josef Scharl. Einstein sponsored Scharl's immigration into the United States in 1939 after the latter was labelled a 'degenerate' artist by the Nazi Party and it became impossible for him to work. Their friendship, first forged in Berlin in the 1920s, flourished in America, and Scharl was a frequent visitor to Princeton. The present portrait – one of many Scharl completed of his friend, including an image used by the U.S. Postal Service for a commemorative stamp – captures Einstein very effectively with its confident, bold lines; when Scharl died in 1954, a few months before his friend's own death, Einstein supplied the eulogy at his funeral, returning the favour in his own way.
390 x 340mm.
Einstein adds his signature to an expressive portrait caricature completed by his friend Josef Scharl. Einstein sponsored Scharl's immigration into the United States in 1939 after the latter was labelled a 'degenerate' artist by the Nazi Party and it became impossible for him to work. Their friendship, first forged in Berlin in the 1920s, flourished in America, and Scharl was a frequent visitor to Princeton. The present portrait – one of many Scharl completed of his friend, including an image used by the U.S. Postal Service for a commemorative stamp – captures Einstein very effectively with its confident, bold lines; when Scharl died in 1954, a few months before his friend's own death, Einstein supplied the eulogy at his funeral, returning the favour in his own way.
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Sophie Hopkins