James Drummond Herbert (1916 – 2009). "Toreador Ballet 2", 1953. Oil on Board. Signed & titled verso. Dimensions: 12” x 16”. Exhibited Providence Art Club. Unframed. Condition: GoodWhile Picasso and Hemingway were attracted to bullfighting for the competition and psychology of the sport, J. D. Herbert was attracted to the costume of the toreador. For Herbert the matador in his embroidered gold and silver short jacket, waistcoat, and knee-length skin-tight trousers of silk and satin made for great subject matter. The toreador is a performance artist and an athlete headed to the arena to conquer the bull. James Herbert was a highly educated and privileged artist born in New York City, who lived in Manhattan and studied at Columbia University during his youth. He attended the Art Students League of New York from 1920-1923, and again from 1926-1929. While there he studied with eminent artists such as Frank Drummond and Kenneth Hayes Miller. He joined a new generation of "intelligent, socially interested and humanly alive artists" such as Reginald Marsh and Isabel Bishop. As Reginald Marsh was attracted to painting the lurid social theatrics of New York daily life, Herbert painted from a more distant observational perspective, capturing "performances” of dancers and stage shows. These voyeuristic images of individual dancers and theatrical entertainers lack the seediness and luridness of Marsh and revel in the costume and movements of the subject. Herbert was a member of the Society of Illustrators by the 1930s and did allot of commercial work for advertisers and fashion magazines in New York City while pursuing his own fine art professional painting career. He later relocated in 1947 to Providence, RI to teach at the Rhode Island School of Design and become a member of the Providence Art Club and Newport Art Association where he exhibited regularly.

Good

12 x 16 in

2 lb