Al Hirschfeld hid the name of his daughter in most of his caricatures and cartoons:
Hirschfeld has engaged in the "harmless insanity," as he calls it, of hiding her name at least once in each of his drawings. The number of NINAs concealed is shown by an Arabic numeral to the right of his signature. Generally, if no number is to be found, either NINA appears once or the drawing was executed before she was born. The NINA-counting mania is well illuminated when, in 1973, an NYU student kept coming back to the Gallery to stare at the same drawing each day for more than a week. The drawing was Hirschfeld's whimsical portrayal of New York's Central Park. When the curiosity finally got the best of me, I asked, "What is so riveting about that one drawing that keeps you here for hours, day after day?" She answered that she had found only 11 of 39 NINAs and would not give up until all were located. I replied that the '39 next to the signature was the year. Nina was born in 1945.
More how we work.
I have a Hirschfeld drawing. I know thta it was framed from the end of WWII back in time. For starters there is no "Nina" And the framer placed his stamp on the back which has his telephone number but no area code.
The subject is two men wearing their talesim and a woman wearing a flowing gown I believe it reflects a Broadway play.
Can you place me in the right direction?
Posted by: Sheldon Licht | December 29, 2010 at 04:09 PM