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| Theodore Lukits was a portrait painter with a theatrical style and a love of color. These qualities and his appreciation for the female form made him the ideal artist to paint many of the great beauties of the Silent Era - Hollywood's golden Age. while Lukits was still living in Chicago, he attended a motion picture convention where he met the famous silent film "vamp" Theda Bara. After Lukits painted her portrait Bara was pleased enough to encourage his already contemplated move to Los Angeles and to make introductions for him in the film community. Once he settled in California he painted portraits for Pola Negri, Mae murray and Alla Nazimova, three of the silent Era's leading ladies. In 1926 he painted Dolores Del Rio, the luminous Mexican beauty, who insisted on being painted with her pet monkey. Titled "A souvenir of Seville," the life-size portrait was exhibited at the premier of the "Loves of Carmen" and it received extensive publicity in the United States and Mexico. There is a clipping that indicated that Lukits started a portrait for Al Jolsen, star of "The Jazz Singer" - though no image of a completed portrait has been discovered. He went on to do portraits for later stars of the 1940s and 1950s. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| TNL ???, Oil on Panel, 40" x 30" "Symphony in Jade and Gold (The Actress Mae Murray)" (1922, Private Collection) |
TNL 416, Oil on Canvas, 36" x 30" "Starlet, Portrait Sketch" (circa 1948, Lukits Art Trust) |
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