everytime i saw his cartoons, i always checked how many ninas there were and always looked for them…
he will be very much missed…
Caricaturist Al Hirschfeld Dies
Wednesday January 22 5:57 PM ET
Classic artist died at his home in New York at the age of 99.
By Claire Runitz, FilmStew.com
Al Hirschfeld, the classic caricaturist who captured every one in show business from Charlie Chaplin to Jerry Seinfeld, died Monday at his home in New York. He was 99.
Hirschfeld had his drawings first published in the 1920s and continued almost until his death. He immortalized entertainers from Ethel Merman to the casts of the 2001 The Producers and the 2002 revival of Oklahoma!
His drawings are famous for containing the name of his daughter, Nina. Hiding his daughter Nina’s name in his drawings started as a little joke by a proud new father in 1945 and became a tradition. “NINA” showed up in the performer’s hair, on the sleeve or in the folds of a dress, for example. Sometimes, there were a half-dozen or more in one drawing, and Hirschfeld helpfully put a number next to his signature if there was more than one. Just last month, the New York Times published a drawing by him of entertainer Tommy Tune, complete with the Hirschfeld hallmarks of fluid line, spiky cross-hatching, a graceful pose — and four “Nina”s.
Hirschfeld was born June 21, 1903, in St. Louis. The family later moved to New York, where Hirschfeld studied at the Art Students League. His first job was as art director for a movie studio. In 1924, he left for Paris and spent a few years studying painting, drawing and sculpture there and in London.
While on a trip back in New York, a friend showed one of his sketches of an actor to someone the friend knew at the New York Herald Tribune. That led to assignments for that paper, and, a short time later, from the New York Times. He had been doing illustrations for the world’s most prominent publications ever since.
Hirschfeld illustrated a number of books, including a collaboration with humorist S.J. Perelman called Westward Ha! Or, Around the World in 80 Cliches, a 1948 best-seller based on their travels on assignment for Holiday magazine. He also illustrated Harlem, with text by William Saroyan, and Treadmill to Oblivion, with text by Fred Allen.
In addition, he published collections of drawings including The World of Hirschfeld and The American Theatre as Seen By Hirschfeld. Hirschfeld was author as well as illustrator of the 1951 book, Show Business Is No Business.
Hirschfeld received a unique tribute from the Postal Service in 1991, in which, for the first time, an artist’s name was put on a booklet of stamps and hidden writing was allowed on a stamp-it said “NINA,” of course. The stamp booklet featured Hirschfeld’s renditions of comedians such as Jack Benny, Laurel & Hardy and Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy. He followed up that up in 1994 with a series of stamps honoring silent film stars such as Rudolph Valentino and Buster Keaton.
Hirschfeld’s wife, actress Dolly Haas, died in 1994. Two years later, Hirschfeld married Louise Kerz, a 60-year-old museum curator. It was she who announced his death.