Portrait of Dock Ellis
Object number2008.152.15
Artist
Henry Koerner
(1915 - 1991)
Date1970-1979
MediumPaper; Ink
Credit LineGift of Mrs. Henry Koerner
DescriptionBlack ink pen drawing of a man wearing chain with medallion. Dimensions15.875 x 20.75 in. (40.3 x 52.7 cm)InscriptionsNumber on jersey: "17".
MarksHandwritten in pencil and blue ink on back: "DOC ELLIS".
Historical NotesDrawing of Doc Ellis. Ellis played for the Pittsburgh Pirates. This drawing is part of a collection of sixteen pen and ink drawings of Pittsburgh Pirates players, by Henry Koerner. Dock Ellis was a pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates in the late 1960s through 1975, and returned in 1979. Dock Ellis is known for his infamous antics on and off the field, having admittingly taking LSD before his no-hitter in 1970 (though he thought he had a day off) and purposely attempting to hit every batter on the Reds team, just to prove a point to his teammates, before being removed by the Pirates manager. 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 person
Dock Phillip Ellis Jr.
(1945 - 2008)
Related institution
Pittsburgh Pirates
(founded 1887)
Related institution
Art Institute of Pittsburgh
Related institution
Chatham University
On View
On view
