Lot 5227: [STEINBECK, JOHN.]

Luis Quintanilla. Original etching, "The Phenomenon," 357 x 275 mm, framed, pale even browning (unexamined outside of frame). Inscribed by Quintanilla on lower margin: " For John Steinbeck, con mi fuerte [illegible] Luis Quintanilla 1932 ." Luis Quintanilla [1893-1978] was a Spanish Civil War veteran as well as an artist. The present work was part of his series of Madrid street scene etchings that comprised his first New York show, at the Pierre Matisse Gallery. The catalogue for this show was written by Ernest Hemingway and John Dos Passos. The central figure, a mustachioed little girl, is a portrait of John Steinbeck. Provenance : From the Collection of Henry S. White.