JOHN ULBRICHT (Havana, Cuba, 1926 - Palma de Mallorca,... Lot 29

JOHN ULBRICHT (Havana, Cuba, 1926 - Palma de Mallorca, 2006). "Tom Courtenay", c.1965. Oil on canvas. Provenance: Private collection of John Ulbricht. Heirs of the artist. Signed in the lower right corner. Size: 149 x 118 cm; 151 x 120 cm (frame). Portrait of Sir Thomas Daniel Courtenay, an English actor who trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Courtenay rose to fame in the 1960s with a series of acclaimed film roles, including The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962), for which he received a BAFTA Award, and Doctor Zhivago (1965), for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. In this particular case the protagonist has been captured in a monumental way, giving prominence only to the face as the protagonist of the scene. The image, with a loose technique inherited in a certain way from pointillism, shows us a portrait that goes beyond the mere truthful capture of facial features, as the expression revealed by the protagonist brings us closer to a personal and psychological facet of the actor. John Ulbricht grew up in Chicago, where he began his artistic training. He settled with his wife on the Spanish island of Majorca in 1954, not to leave it as a residence until his death, even though he came here for the first time on a "Grand Tour" that he had undertaken with his wife, the painter Angela von Newman, "looking for Mediterranean light in non-African spaces" (they passed through Mexico and Denver). He is known, above all, for his "macro" portraits of people (due to the size of the work) and for his landscapes and views with objects (not exactly still lifes in the traditional Baroque line), with a style immersed in the avant-garde but always maintaining a closeness to realist painting (not as a style, but maintaining figuration), and his work has been seen in Palma de Mallorca, Menorca, etc., and is conserved in private collections (in the private collections), His work has been seen in Palma de Mallorca, Menorca, etc., and is preserved in private collections (especially portraits) and mainly in Spanish institutions (Palma de Mallorca City Council Collection, in the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Santander, etc.).