Beautiful landscape Franz Bolinger, impressionist style, title: "Cove in Key West", 37 x 31 inches. Provenance: private owner.

Biography: Franz Josef Bolinger, an artist who painted thousands of pictures of the Everglades, died Friday night after heart surgery. He was 77. A man obsessed by his love of nature, Mr Bolinger was best known for his outspoken devotion to and massive collection of paintings on the jEverglades. He liked to call himself the last of the old-time Florida artists."It's so beautiful, so beautiful that I get bitter and bitter at these people who are destroying it", Bolinger said of the Everglades in 1974."If the Creator was willing, I'd paint 500 pictures a year. I don't care if I sell one of them. That's why I'm painting so furiously from 6 o'clock in the morning to 3 o'clock next morning. I paint every day."In 1960, Mr. Bolinger became dedicated to preserving the Everglades on canvas. "Civilization is working night and day to destroy the great vacant places of the earth," he said then."I will try and retain in the only place where anything is permanent - man's imagination. Let's have some happy painting for a change. The world is still full of beauty. Of course, it's more difficult to paint a sunset than a board fence or a garbage pail, but just look at the difference."Between 1962 and 1974, Mr. Bolinger almost exclusively painted the Everglades completing more than 1,000 paintings.Mr. Bolinger, born in Ft. Lauderdale, lived in Florida nearly all of his life and was a favorite among many Miamians. Once when he opened his Miami Beach gallery in 1969 among hundreds of people who braved the torrential rains, there was a woman who said she had been trying to buy a Bolinger for nine years. Her proof was a 1960 clipping of an article on Mr. Bolinger.Mr. Bolinger, who lived with his older sister, Reeves Bolinger, never married. "I never married because I'd have a dozen children and never do this," He once said. Before taking up landscape painting, Mr. Bolinger concentrated on portraits and even studied for several months with a doctor, in order to gain anatomical accuracy. He also dabbled in sculpture and was an accomplished tenor, performing two concerts in Washington, D.C. in 1947.Mostly a self-taught painter, Mr. Bolinger went to the University of Miami but studied science and botany. "I refused an art degree because they were painting toilet seats - art!" he once said. Mr. Bolinger never liked modern art and strongly criticized it. "I won't paint to match a couch!" he once said. "And I am not going to paint a purple cow."Mr. Bolinger is survived by his sister. Services are being handled by Lithgow Coral Way Chapel.

All authorship of items in this catalog are described according to the following terms:

Signed [Artist Name] : In cases in which the signature is legible in the lot, this work is described as-is with no attributions given.

By [Artist Name] : The work is by the artist.

Attributed to [Artist Name] : The work may be ascribed to the artist on the basis of style, but there may be some question as to actual authorship.

In the manner of [Artist Name] : The work was executed by an unknown hand, but was designed deliberately to emulate the style of the artist.

After [Artist Name] : The work was executed by an unknown hand, but is a deliberate copy of a known work by the artist.

Circle of [Artist Name] : A work of the period of the artist showing his influence, closely associated with the artist but not necessarily his pupil.

Follower of [Artist Name]: A work by a pupil or a follower of the artist (not necessarily a pupil).

American, 19th century: This work was executed by an unknown hand, and can only be identified by origin (i.e., region, period).

Mint