Portrait of Gershon Legman - 1940

1940. c. 1940s.

Oil painting, matted and framed, frame measures 45 x 60 centimeters. Very good.

§ Original portrait of Gershon Legman, the renowned sexual folklorist, literary historian, and bibliographer. His widow remarked of it, "This portrait [was] painted by the artist Jack Kray, who was a good friend of my husband's... What's more (and worse!) my husband, who loved literary hoaxes of all kinds has written on the back that the portrait is the work of the rather better-known artist, Mahlon Blaine. Now it is true that Gershon was friends with Mahlon Blaine, but this portrait is definitely the work of Jack Kray!"

Jack Kray was an Bay Area artist who achieved some local renown. He was a former pupil at the John Huntington Institute and the Cleveland School of Art. From the Oakland Tribune, May 12, 1968:

"Kray's paintings have been exhibited at the Legion of Honor and the Maxwell Gallery in San Francisco and the Cleveland Museum of Art... The Canadian-born artists worked in the midwest for several years before moving to Oakland in 1947. He opened Kray Galleries in Oakland in 1965."

From the Oakland Tribune, August 29, 1965:

"A new gallery has been opened at 4125 Piedmont Ave by Jack Kray, artists and teacher at Oakland Evening High School, who produced for Encyclopedia Britannica the film, "Creation of a Portrait," which has been shown in 36 countries. Paintings and drawings by Kray are presently on exhibit. He plans space for a young people's gallery to encourage talent in the East Bay.