Master Drawings New York - an annual coordinated art sale - is to feature Josef Scharl's Portrait of Albert Einstein, which will be sold in the Upper East Side from January 26-February 2.
The event will offer works spanning from the 16th to 20th century, with contributions from 27 international dealers. Scharl's portrait from 1950 is already causing a stir, with this being the first time the work has ever been seen in public.
 Einstein funded Scharl's move to the US after he was banned from painting by the Nazis |
Scharl and Einstein were good friends, with both emigrating to the United States to avoid the Nazi persecution of Jews in Germany, which began when Hitler gained power in 1933. Einstein had moved to the US shortly after Hitler became chancellor of Germany, sponsoring Scharl's own move after he was no longer allowed to create art under the Nazi regime.
The two were often seen at Princeton University, where Einstein had taken up a position at the Institute for Advanced Study. The portrait itself was completed here, and has been signed by both Scharl and Einstein.
It is one of many in a series of portraits that Scharl conducted of Einstein, which includes the one used by the United States Postal Service for a commemorative stamp in 1966. The piece was discovered in the estate of Lotte Jacobi, a German photographer who had also immigrated to the United States.
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