Al Hirschfeld

Al Hirschfeld (Albert Hirschfeld) , 1903-2003, American graphic artist, b. St. Louis. He and his family moved to New York City when he was 12, and he studied art there and in Paris. A master of line, Hirschfeld is famous for his witty, perceptive, and joyful caricatures of celebrities from the theater and other arts. Many of of these appeared, from 1926 on, in the New York Times. His work is represented in the collections of the Whitney Museum, Museum of Modern Art, and Metropolitan Museum of Art, all in New York City. Hirschfeld also wrote and illustrated several books.

Bibliography: See his The World of Hirschfeld (1970); Hirschfeld: The Great Entertainers (CD-ROM, 1995); S. W. Dryfoos, dir., The Line King (film documentary, 1996).

Hirschfeld, Al[bert] (1903–2003), artist. The St. Louis native began working for the New York Times as a caricaturist specializing in theatrical figures in 1925 and continued chronicling in sketches every season until the day he died seventy‐seven years later. After 1945 he hid his daughter Nina's name in many of his cartoons, indicating the number of Ninas alongside his signature. Hirschfeld also illustrated a number of books with similarly witty, observant line drawings. A Broadway theatre was named after him the year he died.