Peter And His Rabbit
This lithograph came from a local thrift store. The work is quirky, and it appealed to me. It is signed, Ellen Deutsch, but not dated. It is quite large for a lithograph print: 16” x 18”. The golden tans, oranges and browns of the background and boy are dramatically offset by the dark rust bunny, and bright white teeth and eyes. The framing picks up the rust color wonderfully in the matting, and the piece seems very 1970s to me. The child, a boy with noticeable teeth, clutches a much-loved stuffed bunny. It seems a portrait of a specific little boy, with a specific loved toy, however the artist simply called him “Muchacho” (Spanish for boy). She also noted this print is an “artist proof”.
The process of making a hand printed lithograph is complicated, and “artist proofs” are usually run while the artist is creating the piece to determine composition, color choices and to confirm the work has no flaws. Many artist proofs are considered the best version of an artwork as they are done first and are often the highest quality. There can be numerous “artist proofs” as the artist continues to work on the piece. The implication of an “artist proof” is that a printed and numbered series would eventually be run off, possibly for sale.
While I find him charming, I suspect there are plenty of folks who would not want him gracing their walls. To be honest, my 2-year-old granddaughter, who stays in the room where he resides, announced that she didn’t like him. I explained to her he was a bit goofy, but very harmless, and that was the end of it. She never mentioned it again, but we will see next time she comes. Wanting to understand a bit more about the piece, I began researching the artist, Ellen Deutsch.
Ellen was a well-known artist working in the Chicago area from 1976 until her death in 2019. She was born in New York in 1940, and died in 2019. She took art classes throughout her life, but her mother insisted Art was not a career, so she studied science. She received degrees in Biochemistry, and worked for years in Pediatric genetic research, including 10 years at U of I Medical Center in Chicago. Between 1968 to 1972, she completed a master’s degree from NC State University in Biochemistry. At the same time, she was raising 3 small children, Dave (1963), Beth (1964) and Gail (1965) and was active in a University printmaking group, learning etching and linoleum printing techniques.
There is a book about Ellen Deutsch entitled “From Dark to Light With Humor” (J. Stevens, 2013) so I was able to look at her work. It seems my friend Peter most likely was created during her time in North Carolina while studying printmaking. The remainder of her oeuvre addresses women’s issues, depression, holocaust, and trauma, and have very little in common with Peter’s sweet but slightly goofy personality. I do wonder if “Peter” may actually be a work based on her eldest child, a son, who would have been between 5 and 9 while she was studying printmaking in North Carolina.
So, realistically, I should call him David, but I suspect I was attracted to him as he reminds me of one of my brothers. Peter also had unfortunate dental issues as a young boy, so the bucktooth grin speaks to me of him. Virtually nothing else about the little boy resembles my brother, but there is something appropriate for “Peter” to be carting about his “rabbit”, regardless if it is actually David.