A large pastel by Leon Dolice featuring a stark view of an illuminated New York City skyline. Leon Dolice worked for over 60 years painting New York City views borrowing from the French Impressionists and Claude Monet specifically. His countless pastel variations capture his beloved Manhattan in varying lighting and color combinations and pastel configurations. The work highlights the extreme skyscraper forms and machine age industrialism which transformed the New York skyline during the art deco jazz age. A fresh estate find from the Collection of The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
Born and raised in Vienna, Leon Dolice rejected his family business and traveled through the major museums of Europe to study the art of the masters. After supporting himself as both an illustrator and stage designer, Dolice left Vienna for America in 1920. Settling in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, he became friends with such contemporary artists as George Luks and Herbert Roth. For the following twenty years, Dolice established his reputation mostly with his favourite medium — the art of etching. After 1940 the decline in popularity of etching forced the artist to turn to painting and pastel drawing.
In the past few years, his work has been exhibited at Hofstra Museum, with the Montauk Artists’ Association, with the New Rochelle Council on The Arts, at Décor Expo and Art Expo at Javits Center and at numerous hotels, galleries and not-for-profit organizations mostly in the greater metropolitan New York area. Replicas of his works are in many galleries in New York and California and have been at Bloomingdales stores nationwide, and at other retail establishments.