Ben Solowey (1900–1978) was an American artist, known for his sculpture, painting, and drawing. He was born in Warsaw, Poland on August 29, 1900. In 1907, his family moved to St. Petersburg, Russia, then, when he was fourteen, to

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

. There he studied under Hugh H. Breckenridge and

Daniel Garber Daniel Garber (April 11, 1880 – July 5, 1958) was an American Impressionist landscape painter and member of the art colony at New Hope, Pennsylvania. He is best known today for his large impressionist scenes of the New Hope area, in which he o ...

at the

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

, from which he graduated in 1923. In 1924, he took a job as ship's steward on the SS Leviathan so that he could go to London and Paris to see both old masters and more recent masterpieces of

Impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

and

Post-Impressionism Post-Impressionism (also spelled Postimpressionism) was a predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction a ...

. He was influenced by French artists from

Delacroix Delacroix is a French surname that derives from ''de la Croix'' ("of the Cross"). It may refer to: People * Caroline Delacroix (1883–1945), French-Romanian mistress of Leopold II of Belgium * Charles-François Delacroix (1741–1805), ...

and

Courbet Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet ( , , ; 10 June 1819 – 31 December 1877) was a French painter who led the Realism movement in 19th-century French painting. Committed to painting only what he could see, he rejected academic convention and t ...

to the impressionists and more modern painters such as Cézanne, as well as the sculptor Auguste Rodin. In 1925, he returned to Philadelphia, where he worked as a decorative painter. Solowey moved to New York in 1928, where he was commissioned by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' and the ''

Herald Tribune ''Herald'' or ''The Herald'' is the name of various newspapers. ''Herald'' or ''The Herald'' Australia * The Herald (Adelaide), ''The Herald'' (Adelaide) and several similar names (1894–1924), a South Australian Labor weekly, then daily * ''Ba ...

'' to capture the likenesses of Broadway and Hollywood celebrities. Of these, he sketched Ethel Barrymore, Fanny Brice,

Claudette Colbert Claudette Colbert ( ; born Émilie Claudette Chauchoin; September 13, 1903July 30, 1996) was an American actress. Colbert began her career in Broadway productions during the late 1920s and progressed to films with the advent of talking pictures ...

, Katharine Cornell,

Marlene Dietrich Marie Magdalene "Marlene" DietrichBorn as Maria Magdalena, not Marie Magdalene, according to Dietrich's biography by her daughter, Maria Riva ; however Dietrich's biography by Charlotte Chandler cites "Marie Magdalene" as her birth name . (, ; ...

, Helen Hayes, Katharine Hepburn,

Walter Huston Walter Thomas Huston ( ;According to the Province of Ontario. ''Ontario, C ...

, George S. Kaufman, Mary Nash,

Lily Pons Alice Joséphine Pons (April 12, 1898 – February 13, 1976), known professionally as Lily Pons, was a French-American operatic soprano and actress who had an active career from the late 1920s through the early 1970s. As an opera singer, she s ...

, and Basil Rathbone. In 1930, after a brief courtship, he married Rae Landis, who became his primary model. Reva_Veis_by_Ben_Solowey

In 1942, the couple moved to a secluded farm in

Bucks County, Pennsylvania Bucks County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 646,538, making it the fourth-most populous county in Pennsylvania. Its county seat is Doylestown. The county is named after the English ...

. There, Solowey would spend the rest of his days, restoring the ancient farmhouse and painting. His studio in

Bedminster Township, Pennsylvania Bedminster Township is a township in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The population was 6,574 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Delaware Valley metropolitan region. Bedminster is part of Pennridge School District. History Deep Run Presbyterian Ch ...

is maintained as a museum.

External links

Biography at Solowey.com

References

1900 births 1978 deaths 20th-century American painters American male painters People from Bucks County, Pennsylvania 20th-century American male artists {{US-painter-1900s-stub