Lot 460: HOLTZMANN, FANNY

460. FANNY HOLTZMANN (1902-1980) Pioneering female entertainment industry attorney, a multifaceted Jewish-American dynamo who played an important and influential role shaping international policy, rescuing scores of Jews during the Holocaust and helping to establish Israel, also a successful artist whose works grace New York's Museum of Modern Art. Holtzmann's stellar client list included George Bernard Shaw, Noel Coward and Fred Astaire though she made international headlines representing the Russian royal family against MGM in the notorious Rasputin trial. Offered here is a wonderful item associating two larger-than-life women, an oil painting executed by Holtzmann of her client and close friend, actress GERTRUDE LAWRENCE. Measuring 9" x 12" on stretched canvas, a head and shoulders likeness of the legendary star of "Pygmalion", "The King and I" and "The Glass Menagerie" signed "E. HOLTZMANN" at lower right. This may have been a study for a another portrait of Gertrude Lawrence executed by Fanny Holtzmann published in the New York Times' tribute to Lawrence following her death in September 1952. Sold ready to frame and in very good condition.
$500-700