john-jack-savitsky-american-1910-1991-two-mining-pictures
Lot 587
John 'Jack' Savitsky (American, 1910-1991), Two Mining Pictures
Lot Details & Additional Photographs
The first a mixed media on paper, signed at lower right, inscribed "Silver Creek, PA" at lower left, framed under glass (Frame dimensions 16 1/4 x 13 1/4 in.); the second a diptych, ink and graphite on paper, both signed and dated 1978, the left hand scene depicting the Delaware Water Gap and the right hand scene depicting a train in E. Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, matted and framed under Plexiglass (Frame dimensions 9 1/4 x 18 1/2 in.).

Private Collection, Raleigh, North Carolina

John Savitsky, also known as "Coal Miner Jack," was a coal miner around Lansford, Pennsylvania for over forty years. During his free time, he would paint signs for windows and trucks, as well as murals for local speakeasies. He was diagnosed with "black lung" in his fifties, and since he could no longer work in the mines, he took to painting full time. His work is in numerous public and private collections, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C.

Good estate condition; not examined out of the frames.