$4,000
Estimate: $5,000 - $8,000
American Art & Pennsylvania Impressionists
Auction: June 3, 2018 3:00:00 PM EDT
Signed and dated 'Dal/68' bottom right, oil on canvas
42 1/8 x 33 3/16 in. (107 x 84.3cm)
Provenance: The Estate of Walter McDaniel, Pennsylvania.
EXHIBITED:
"Rendezvous," The Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma, April 28-July 9, 1995.
LITERATURE:
David A. Leffel, Self-Portraits: A Visual Journey of Insight, Bright Light Publishing, El Prado, New Mexico, 2009, p. 82 (illustrated).
NOTE:
This self-portrait was completed at a time when David Leffel had difficulty finishing paintings and was considering giving up. The artist vividly recalls the genesis of this painting: "One day my eye, casting around the studio in desperation seeking any kind of succor, happened on this painting. I had started it some time before and had abandoned it, when, once again, my interest in painting had waned. Regarding it almost as a swan song, I thought to go out in a blaze of desperation- I would put as much paint on the canvas as I could: gobs and slathers of it. Almost before I had time to take in what was happening, I was having great fun. I was using paint in a new way with more paint than even before, and it had triggered a breakthrough. I could not get enough paint on the canvas. The joy had returned-I didn't have to get a job! I was manipulating paint and making it stand for skin and hair and scarf; it was as though I had a magic brush in my hand. I felt I reached a new plateau."