Portrait of Willie Stargell
Object number2008.152.14
Artist
Henry Koerner
(1915 - 1991)
Date1970-1979
MediumPaper; Ink
Credit LineGift of Mrs. Henry Koerner
DescriptionBlack ink pen drawing of Pittsburgh Pirates player Willie Stargell.Dimensions15.875 x 20.75 in. (40.3 x 52.7 cm)InscriptionsBehind player, in proper right background, jersey: "[P]IRATES / 8".
MarksHandwritten in blue ink on back: "WILLIE / STARGELL".
Historical NotesDrawing of Willie Stargell, outfielder and first baseman for the Pittsburgh Pirates in the early 1960s through the early 1980s. Stargell is one of the most revered players in the Pirates long history. Part of a collection of sixteen pen and ink drawings of Pittsburgh Pirates, by Henry Koerner. Henry Koerner was a Vienna-born painter whose portraits of celebrities like Maria Callas and John F. Kennedy appeared on the cover of Time magazine. He was considered a master of Magic Realism, whose works are in the permanent collection of several museums, such as the National Portrait Gallery and the Whitney Museum of American Art. He started out as a commercial artist in Brooklyn. He emigrated to the United States in 1938. Throughout much of WWII, he designed posters for the Office of War Information and the Office of Strategic Services. He was sent to Germany after the war to sketch the Nuremberg trials for the American Military Government. Koerner visited Vienna and learned that his mother, father, and brother died in a concentration camp. Koerner moved to Pittsburgh in 1952 and taught at Chatham College and the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. He was hit by a car while bicycling with his wife and died while in Vienna in 1991.
Related institution
Pittsburgh Pirates
(founded 1887)
Related person
Wilver Dornell Stargell
(1940 - 2001)
Related institution
Art Institute of Pittsburgh
Related institution
Chatham University
On View
On view
