Description
Einstein, Albert (1879 – 1955)
A superb silkscreen print signed by the sitter (‘A. Einstein’ bottom left) and the artist (‘Jos. Scharl’ bottom right), 1946. Overall size approximately 13.5″ X 15.5″. Neatly framed, and in very fine condition. A fabulous display piece.
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.