Samuel Rosenberg (American, 1896-1972), Untitled

Oil on canvas, 1954, signed and dated at lower left, presented in a period frame. Included with the lot is a signed preliminary sketch of the work in colors (framed).

Stretcher size 54 3/4 x 45 in.; Frame dimensions 56 1/2 x 47 in.

Acquired by the consignor's parents who were close friends with the artist.

Samuel Rosenberg was an influential American painter and educator whose career was deeply rooted in Pittsburgh, where he developed a highly personal style that evolved from portraiture and urban realism to expressive abstraction. Largely self-taught, with additional study at the National Academy of Design in New York, Rosenberg drew inspiration from the people and neighborhoods of Pittsburgh, particularly the Hill District, while continually experimenting with light, color, and form. His work was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Corcoran Gallery, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the Carnegie Museum of Art, among many other institutions.

Equally respected as a teacher, Rosenberg spent nearly five decades instructing generations of artists at Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University), the Irene Kaufmann Settlement, and Chatham College. His students included Andy Warhol, Philip Pearlstein, and Mel Bochner, attesting to his lasting influence on postwar American art. A major retrospective of his work was organized by the Westmoreland Museum of American Art in 2003 and accompanied by Barbara L. Jones's Samuel Rosenberg: Portrait of a Painter, published by the University of Pittsburgh Press, reaffirming his legacy as one of Pennsylvania's most significant twentieth-century artists.

Light surface grime; minor nicking to frame.

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