1. Julian Ritter was an American painter of Polish-German descent who painted primarily nudes, clowns and portraits.
70 Facts About Julian Ritter
1. 2.
Julian Ritter's nudes celebrated the glamor and beauty of the female form.
3.
Julian Ritter painted landscapes at different points during his career and complex compositions dealing with mystical and spiritual subjects during his later years.
4.
Julian Ritter held many menial jobs during this time - dishwasher, errand boy, order clerk.
5.
Julian Ritter audited the night classes of Dr Schroeder at the Chicago Art Institute.
6.
Julian Ritter returned to Los Angeles where he later won a scholarship to the Art Center School.
7.
Julian Ritter was introduced to figure painting under the tutelage of Stanley Reckless who had studied at the Philadelphia Academy of Art and taught in the tradition of Frank Duveneck and the Munich School.
8.
Julian Ritter has individual types of great interest: the old philosopher talking forever to a blank wall, the peasant woman going to church against the wind of life.
9.
Julian Ritter's color is very delicate and helpful to his purpose, which is mainly expressed through sensitive drawing.
10.
Julian Ritter graduated Art Center School in 1932 and found work at Los Angeles's film studios painting portraits for movie sets and doing other set design for Warner Brothers, MGM, Paramount and Universal.
11.
Julian Ritter met the tall actress Francesca Chesley in 1933.
12.
Julian Ritter headed to San Francisco looking for work at the Golden Gate International Exhibition of 1939.
13.
Julian Ritter was hired by architect Mark Daniels to paint murals for the Mines, Minerals and Machinery Building.
14.
Julian Ritter exhibited at both the Gallery of Modern Art and the Newhouse Galleries in New York City during 1941.
15.
Julian Ritter met Hildegarde "Hilde" Sabena Meyer-Radon in 1942 when he saw her walking past his studio to take violin lessons from an instructor next door.
16.
At the US entrance into the war, Julian Ritter wanted to enlist in the US Navy due to his love of the sea, his sense of adventure and his loyalty to his adopted country.
17.
Julian Ritter was assigned to the 40th Engineer Regiment which was organized in Camp Pickett, Virginia, attached to the 45th Infantry Division which was part of General George Patton's 7th Army.
18.
Julian Ritter was initially a member of the 3rd Battalion which trained at Fort Lewis, Washington.
19.
Julian Ritter asked Hilde to come join him at Memphis, and he asked her to marry him.
20.
In October 1945 Julian Ritter returned to Los Angeles to paint and to raise a family.
21.
Julian Ritter and Hilde had two children while living in Hollywood: Christine was born in 1947 and Michael in 1948.
22.
Art critic Arthur Miller of the Los Angeles Times wrote in a 1947 review of Julian Ritter's one-man show at the James Vigeveno Galleries in Westwood, California:.
23.
Julian Ritter has chosen to paint clowns, he explains, because 'In the clown one sees all the emotions a man can express; to record him is to depict humanity itself.
24.
Julian Ritter moved the family to Don Pio Drive in Woodland Hills, California, in the early 1950s.
25.
At the urging of his brother-in-law, Stewart Potter, Julian Ritter began selling his paintings in Las Vegas in February, 1950.
26.
Julian Ritter sold Moore 13 framed nudes for $1000 which would become the basis of the Silver Slipper Collection of paintings.
27.
Shortly after this, Otto Eitel, owner of the Bismarck Hotel which was at the center of Chicago's Loop entertainment district, invited Julian Ritter to do a one-man show at the Swiss Chalet Galleries and to paint a mural for the Bismarck Inn.
28.
Julian Ritter was enjoying success with his clown and nude paintings but, at the same time, he felt trapped by this success.
29.
Julian Ritter was not painting the great works he imagined.
30.
Hilde worked at the noted Brooks Institute of Photography while Julian Ritter continued to paint steadily as his paintings commanded higher values.
31.
Julian Ritter's work was represented in continuing exhibitions at the Poulsen Galleries in Pasadena and at frequent showings at the James Vigeveno Gallery in Westwood.
32.
Julian Ritter was represented in San Francisco by the Maxwell Galleries and the Kotzbeck Gallery, and by galleries in Palm Springs and Scottsdale.
33.
Julian Ritter was at the height of his commercial success but he disliked that the galleries were making money that he felt should be going to him.
34.
Julian Ritter had always had a somewhat stormy relationship with his dealers and preferred to deal directly with collectors.
35.
In 1963, Julian Ritter had a show at the Poulsen Galleries in Pasadena, California.
36.
When she collapsed, Julian Ritter insisted and doctors discovered she had cancer.
37.
Julian Ritter had a mastectomy and struggled for two years before succumbing to the disease.
38.
Julian Ritter felt that he needed to get away from the Edgewater Way house that held so many memories of his wife, so he sold the house and its contents for $37,000.
39.
Julian Ritter bought a custom-built yawl still under construction in Morro Bay, California.
40.
Julian Ritter named the boat Galilee, and with the assistance of a two-man crew, on February 2,1968, he sailed it to various ports including Acapulco, Mexico, where he was joined by Kokx.
41.
Julian Ritter then sailed to the Galapagos Islands, Tahiti, Moorea and Bora Bora, sketching tropical scenes for later development as paintings.
42.
In December, 1968, a show was mounted at the Bernard Gallery in Los Angeles of works painted in Puntarenas that Julian Ritter had sent home.
43.
Julian Ritter appeared on the TV game show To Tell the Truth along with two "impostor" contestants and the celebrity panelists in an episode that aired December 22,1970.
44.
Julian Ritter donated six of his clown paintings for an auction to raise money for a group working for the release of American prisoners of war held in North Vietnam.
45.
Julian Ritter made the contribution out of sympathy for the prisoners and their families and personal gratitude to the Navy for his rescue.
46.
Julian Ritter was already a fulfilled artist who saw himself as a maestro and people treated him accordingly.
47.
One painting which did stand out was a crucifixion: Julian Ritter had posed and was photographed and then painted himself onto the cross in a self-portrait.
48.
Julian Ritter preferred to sell directly to collectors so he could make more money.
49.
Julian Ritter had a sufficient number of patrons at this point in his life so that he no longer needed to rely on gallery showings.
50.
Julian Ritter died at home on March 4,2000, at the age of 90.
51.
Julian Ritter befriended Chick Rosenthal who lived in the same Hollywood bungalows in the 1930s and maintained that friendship until Rosenthal's death.
52.
Julian Ritter began a long-term friendship with Rudolph Axford from Venice, California, in the mid-1950s.
53.
Axford shared Julian Ritter's conservative politics and love of boats, and was a Julian Ritter patron who accumulated many pieces of his work.
54.
Julian Ritter liked doing caricature, often drawing cartoons rather than sending letters to friends.
55.
Julian Ritter's work was typically on display in any given week at some gallery in Southern California as evidenced through display ads in the Sunday Los Angeles Times.
56.
Julian Ritter was frequently listed in the Calendar section of the Los Angeles Times.
57.
Julian Ritter painted many actors, especially while employed at Warner Brothers where he would paint an actor in his current role.
58.
Julian Ritter painted Ruby Keeler, Clara Bow, Claudette Colbert, Olivia de Havilland and Veronica Lake.
59.
Julian Ritter painted a number of nudes of his first wife, the actress Francesca Chesley.
60.
Julian Ritter painted a couple of nudes of his second wife, Hilde.
61.
Julian Ritter painted many showgirl paintings, the most famous of which is "Ruby," a painting of an African-American girl.
62.
Julian Ritter made several showgirl paintings using a model named LeeAnn which were commercially successful.
63.
Julian Ritter's first visit to a circus was in 1949.
64.
Julian Ritter was commissioned in the early 1950s by an art gallery on Ventura Blvd in the San Fernando Valley to paint a set of small 8"x10" clowns called the Helter Skelter Clowns.
65.
Julian Ritter painted a series of clowns based on "Mr Whimsey," a clown with his dog.
66.
Julian Ritter painted several more "Mr Whimsey" paintings, some of which were part of the Silver Slipper collection.
67.
Julian Ritter said of the San Blas paintings that they informed him with a new sense of color.
68.
Julian Ritter's "Man on the Cross" was a deeply personal view into Julian Ritter's emotions as he painted his self-portrait onto the cross.
69.
Julian Ritter's work changed again when he went to Maui, building again on the spiritual.
70.
The Silver Slipper Casino collection started in February, 1950 when Julian Ritter sold 13 framed nude paintings for $1000 to Bill Moore, the owner of the Last Frontier Hotel.