Antique American Impressionist Artist Dey de Ribcowski, 1800-1936, O/C, signed lower right, dated 1913. This nocturne may depict a known California landmark, Seal Rock.
The following is from Charles Gurney.
My knowledge is limited to the years 1935 and 1936.
He lived in one of the Los Angeles area's best hotels. My memory says The Ambassador (most famous for its Coconut Grove supper club) in Hollywood, but not 100% certain (Could have been the Beverly Wilshire ?)
His paintings were on permanent show and for sale in the hotel's public rooms. Virtually all were framed in heavy, very ornate, gilt frames with overhead lighting attached. He was fairly insistent about selling them that way. He liked the lighting (day and night) which may have enhanced his "Reflex Style" which other biographies have said he patented. (a special brush technique, I think.)
He was confined to a wheel chair. I do not know the cause nor the length of this infirmity. His physical condition did not greatly restrict his travel. He owned, or perhaps hired, a large sedan, and a chauffeur drove him, lifted and carried him into his folding wheel chair. . A young lady, nurse-companion, usually accompanied, helped with the wheel chair, etc. .
In 1935 he traveled all the way to the small town of Yankton, South Dakota where he was a guest of my father who had asked him to come to paint family portraits. Neither of my grand parents liked their portraits, and would not display them. (I don't think he has ever been mentioned as a portrait artist).
While in Yankton, he may have painted both his largest and worst painting; it was done (in good humor) on a bet with my grandfather that he could not fill the large canvas in two hours. He did, and some years later it hung in the foyer of our family hotel - Yosemite type scene that looked like an artist had done it in two hours. It was NOT signed. I do not know what happened to it.
Some biographies mention that his best known work is Old Ironsides, which was done on a commission by an Old Ironsides 'Foundation' for showing in its Chicago gallery.
De Ribcowsky did a great deal of "commercial art" which at the time was often referred to as "calendar art." (Not then intended as a compliment.) These prints are very common in today's antique shops. (On the internet this week there is a Ribcowsky jig saw puzzle being offered - a sales promotion item in the '30s).
A few times in 1935 and '36, De Ribcowsky would call my mother to ask if he could come up to our St. Barbara house for lunch. He liked mother's cooking, and he also hoped she would consent to letting my 12 year old sister model for him. (She never did.) 1936 he gave my sister a moonscape (Malibu) and landscape (wild-flowers, hills, oaks, mountains near Lake Tahoe) for her birthday. Now cleaned, they hang in my house, as pretty as when original, but with minimal frames and without their overhead lights.
Within this month, February 2002, I know of two sales. I alerted my cousin in Los Angeles about a small, 1917 painting of the San Fran. Golden Gate (pre-bridge), and she bought it - her 3rd, I think. . Another, larger and also a sea-scape, is now in my house where I have to decide about restoration of both frame and painting.
Those old enough to remember the classic Monty Wooley movie, The Man Who Came to Dinner, would recognize De Ribcowsky as identical twin - the beard, the wheel chair and the behavior in that movie.
Shortly after de Ribcowsky's death, my father checked into the hotel and asked about him. The hotel turned the question back, saying that the authorities had been unable to find out anything about a family or lawyer. They and my father thought they remembered that he had sometimes spoken about a daughter.
That I can remember this much from the years I was 9 and 10 years old, tells what a really forceful personality he was. He was, truly, unforgettable. Behind the sometimes curmudgeonly manner, he was quite a humorist and definitely a powerful presence. His paintings please, and they last.