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Lot 1003

FREEMAN, DON. 1908-1978.
Original lithograph, Kay Thompson, 370 x 223 mm,

6 – 13 December 2018, 10:00 EST
New York

Sold for US$187.50 inc. premium

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FREEMAN, DON. 1908-1978.

Original lithograph, Kay Thompson, 370 x 223 mm, printed by Lynton Richards Kistler of Los Angeles with his blind embossed stamp lower left, 1951, signed by the artist in ink lower right. Framed.
Provenance: Kay Thompson gift to Hilary Knight.

No. 32 of 200 copies. Like Hilary Knight, Don Freeman was a highly successful children's book illustrator, but he first made a name for himself as a chronicler of Broadway. Also like Mr. Knight, he was an exceptional designer of theater posters for such productions as The Skin of Our Teeth (1942) and A Streetcar Named Desire (1947). Among the many people he knew in show business was Kay Thompson; and he used her as the subject of this affectionate lithograph. He cleverly depicted her in the manner of Toulouse-Lautrec's famous fin de siècle posters of Jane Avril and La Goulue for the Moulin Rouge in Paris, employing the same energetic stippling and bold hand-lettering. He also drew the cover of her MGM Records album Kay Thompson Sings (1954). Miss Thompson gave this print to Mr. Knight on the publication of their book Eloise in Paris (1956). Another copy is in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D. C.

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