14 Facts About Bernard Safran

Bernard Safran was an American painter known for his realistic portraits and scenes of everyday life in New York and in rural Canada.

Bernard Safran created many portraits for Time magazine covers, with subjects that included Elizabeth II, Pope John XXIII, Dwight D Eisenhower, John F Kennedy, Lyndon B Johnson and Richard Nixon.

Bernard Safran illustrated magazine articles, such as Stand by for Danger in the April 1954 issue of Boys' Life, one of many stories he illustrated for that magazine.

Bernard Safran spent six months in the mid-1950s studying and copying work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art by old masters such as Peter Paul Rubens, Diego Velazquez and Rembrandt.

Bernard Safran worked as an illustrator for Time from 1957 to 1966.

Bernard Safran's covers included works such as Kenya's Tom Mboya, in which he showed a dreamy-eyed Mboya dressed in coat and tie in front of a white settler on one side and a native African on the other, with Mount Kenya in the background.

Bernard Safran depicted Cuba's Che Guevara for the August 8,1960, edition and [Pope] John XXIII for the January 4,1963, edition.

Bernard Safran's subjects included the poor, prostitutes, working people and old people.

Bernard Safran took many casual photographs of public life in the city.

In 1964 Bernard Safran made a painting of Medea, a modern interpretation of the tragic Greek infanticide from the play of that name by Euripides.

In 1973 Bernard Safran moved with his family to a farmhouse outside of Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada.

Bernard Safran died of a heart attack on October 14,1995, at his home in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada.

Bernard Safran was survived by his wife, Adele, two daughters and four grandchildren.

Bernard Safran's work was exhibited in New York and Washington galleries.