Richard Aberle Florsheim, Illinois (1916-1979), Illuminations, 1959, lithograph, 23"H x 18"W

Richard Aberle Florsheim Illinois (1916-1979) Illuminations, 1959 lithograph Numbered lower left, signed, titled, and dated lower right. Biography from the Archives of askART: The following was compiled and submitted by Jean Ershler Schatz, artist and researcher of Laguna Woods, California:Richard Florsheim was born on October 25, 1916 in Chicago, Illinois. He was a painfully shy child, channelling all his energies into straight-A scholarship and crude, gloomy art. His father reluctantly helped him get an art education in Europe during the 1930s, but before World War II Florsheim managed to sell just one picture In the Navy during the war, Florsheim discovered in himself an unexpected streak of scientific acumen. He developed a radar plane-spotting technique that is still considered basic. But at the end of the war, he was still faced with many problems in his art. He buckled down to the backbreaking work schedule and exhibited only on occasion. Happily married and with an art teaching job to help make ends meet, he still felt and painted misery. But gradually the gloom lifted from his work and he began to sell until there came a time when everything he painted was snapped up. He died in 1979. Sources include: Mantle Fielding's Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors and Engravers, 1986-7 Time Magazine, November 23, 1959. 23"H x 18"W