Keith Sheridan Fine Prints

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Alfred Frueh was a caricaturist for the New Yorker from the magazine's inception until 1962. Although Frueh is best known for his caricatures, he also painted, illustrated books, and designed magazine covers. The artist summarized his early life as follows: "Reincarnated AD 1880 at Lima, O ... Graduated Lima Business College 1894 1/2. Farmed and worked in Brewery [his father's] 1894 1/2 to 1903. Went to St. Lewis."

Frueh held a position in the art department of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch which led to his drawing of the editorial page cartoons as well as theatrical caricatures. After a trip to Europe during which he became friends with Matisse and Braque, Frueh accepted a position at the New York newspaper The World where he drew cartoons and story illustrations. After a second trip to Europe in 1912, Frueh mounted a traveling exhibition which showed in Boston, St. Louis and in New York at Alfred Stieglitz' Photo-Session Gallery at 291 5th Ave. (Nov. 20 - Dec.12,1912). Steiglitz characterized Frueh's work in his magazine Camera Work as follows: "...his show afforded a refreshing relaxation, in its sympathetic humor, from the tensions of New York life. Frueh is to be congratulated for the delightful manner in which he has depicted his impressions of our entertainers, displaying a pictorial sense of line and color, an ability to seize the

significant characters of each individual and emphasize them with a gentle if sometimes mordant iron."

From 1920 to 1921 Life magazine published a weekly drawing by Frueh of a leading character or performer in a current play. In 1925 he left The World and joined he fledgling New Yorker magazine. Frueh had two drawings in the first issue of the magazine and executed its second cover. His last drawing for the New Yorker was done in 1962 at the age of eight-one.

The 1922 publication of his portfolio Stage Folk,linoleum cuts of selected theater caricatures, met with great success. The forty-one caricatures represent work from 1907-1922. The small publishing house of Lieber and Lewis produced the volume, which sold in 1922 for $10.00. The linoleum blocks were cut by Frueh and printed on Japan paper which was mounted on a larger 18 x 12 inch backing paper. The edition was limited to 500 copies.

Bibliography: Thomas P. Bruhs, The Art of Alfred Frueh, exh. catalogue, William Benton Museum of Art, 1983. Maxwell Silverman and Brendan Gill, Frueh on the Theater: Theatrical Caricatures, New York Public Library, 1972.