150989688Lawrence Lebduska18941966LawrenceLebduskahttps://collection.folkartmuseum.org/internal/media/dispatcher/1442/fullLebduska was born of Bohemian parents in Baltimore, MD and educated in Europe where he learned the craft of stained-glassmaking.  Lebduska is best known for his brightly colored paintings of animals and people.  This painting of a nude is an unusual subject for the artist, but exhibits his clarity of color and line and reflects his training as a craftsman of stained glass. Lebduska had his first one-man show in 1936, but his popularity waned after the 1940's.  His work was rediscovered in the 1960's and he died soon after, in 1966.Lebduska was born in Baltimore in 1894, but at the age of five, his Czech parents took him to Leipzig where he learned stained-glass techniques. He also studied art for a time, but did not progress beyond the study of preparing and mixing colors. He returned to the United States at the age of 18 and one of his first jobs was as a house painter and wall decorator with Elise de Wolfe. He soon started his own business, painting canvases in his spare time. Lebduska is best known for the paintings of animals, flowers, and people which exhibit the clarity of color and line that reflect his training as a craftsman of stained glass. Lebduska's paintings became very popular in the late 1930's  and early 1940's. According to early patrons, Louise and Annette Kaufman Lebduska first became interested in painting flowers after seeing an exhibition of French still-lifes. He also depicted exotic scenes of Arabia, India and Africa, and the Kaufman's supplied him with travel books for inspiration. Several of the portraits were based on photographs of the subject, as well. Lebduska's growing problems with alcohol abuse and the growing preoccupation with the onset of WWII brought his career to a standstill in the 1940's and he was reduced to living in proverty, often trading paintings for drinks. In 1960, a Long Island dealer, Eva Lee, became interested in Lebduska's work. After locating him she nursed him back to health and helped him cope with his alcoholism. As a result, he began to paint again and was given his first one-man show in twenty years, at the Krasner Gallery.(1894–1966)New YorkBaltimoreLeipzigNew YorkBaltimoreLeipzigNew YorkBaltimoreLeipzigLawrence LebduskaLawrence H. Lebduska