There is another face of an old man cutting leather that I enjoy, in fact, its enjoyment is deepened by the fact that it was found underneath another canvas that was being conserved. Here it is:
It didn't occur to me they might be the same man, until today.
I was going through some photos of drawings that made their way into my hands from a cousin through my brother recently. There I found a drawing that is clearly the same man as the one in the painting I call The Aristocrat. Here it is:
The cap on the man's head in the drawing is also the same style cap on the man who is cutting leather. Could this be the same man and the same cap? The more I look, the more I think, yes. He has a beard in both the drawing and in The Aristocrat.
Was the drawing a study for "The Aristocrat" painting? If so, was the tall and broad-brimmed hat added for more pizazz? It certainly adds a very nice spatial balance to the "Aristocrat" painting.
The smaller cap on the man in the drawing gave me reason to take a closer look at the man in the painting I call Leather Cutter. There he has no beard, but the direction of hairs in the mustache seem to suggest it is the same man! Geesh, I've had those two paintings since the early mid-1980s and never realized they were one and the same man until I came across this drawing!
Update March 31, 2011: Today, I found another drawing of this man, this time without the mustache. Here he is:
It was found among photos of a collection of drawings that I recently recieved. I was not signed or dated, so I am not 100% sure it was done by my grandfather (but around 99.7% sure, wink), since there were other works in the collection that were done by my grandfather's friends (like Stacy Tolman).
AND, update 4/1/2011, Just found this drawing in a photo of my grandfather's studio! (Click here for link.)
