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Artist: Harvey Dinnerstein
Title: The Wide Swing (Joe DiMaggio)
Year created: 1974
Medium: Limited Edition Lithograph from Original Oil Painting, Hand-Signed by Joe DiMaggio
Edition: 667/1500 Limited Edition, Hand-SIgned by Joe DiMaggio
Height (inches): 27
Width (inches): 31
This piece is framed.
Includes a certificate of authenticity.
Description of piece:
This signed & numbered limited edition original lithograph has been hand-signed by Joe DiMaggio, prominently in the center of the artwork, directly below the image area.
The image is the most widely recognized Joe DiMaggio artworks, and possibly also the best known artwork of the sport of baseball. The 1974 Harvey Dinnerstein oil painting, The Wide Swing, was commissioned for the 1974 Sports Illustrated "Living Legends" series, especially for the creation of a limited edition of 1500 lithographs— of which this artwork is one. The artwork is numbered 667/1500.
The magnificent portrait captures a legend at the peak of his abilities, as the most perfect swing in the sport's history strung together an unbroken chain of fifty-six games with a recorded base hit. A photograph taken at Washington's Griffith Stadium during that peerless Summer of '41 served as the inspiration for the work, but Dinnerstein's deft brushwork evokes an emotional response that no mere snapshot could provide.
With a framed size measuring 27-3/4" in height x 31-5/8" in width, this is a visually commanding artwork. Custom framed in a vintage black wood frame with carved rope details, and a triple mat in white for the inner mat, second layer of blue, and a sueded tan outer mat, this classic, stately work comes ready for display. An elegant custom cut-out in the matting preserves and displays the original inscription, which reads: "Joe DiMaggio, Yankee Clipper, New York Yankees 1936-1951".
James Spence Authentication (JSA) has examined and authenticated Joe DiMaggio's signature on the artwork. The work is accompanied by a Full Letter of Authenticity from JSA.
Artist bio:
Harvey Dinnerstein was born in Brooklyn thirteen years before the first edition of the great Yankee/Dodger Fall Classic rivalry in 1941 and studied at the Art Students League of New York with such notable artists as Moses Soyer and Yasuo Kuniyoshi. He's perhaps best known for his series of drawings documenting the Civil Rights upheaval of the 1960's, and his work resides in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the National Museum of American Art, among many others. The Wide Swing remains his most famous single work.
The Wide Swing served as the cover art for several prominent publications including "Summer of '49" by David Halberstam, "Encyclopedia of Major League Baseball: American League Team Histories," and the "Diamonds are Forever: Artists and Writers on Baseball" exhibition catalogue. A wide array of public exhibitions likewise sowed the seeds of fame for the image; those exhibitions include:
Washington, D.C., The National Portrait Gallery; Chicago, Illinois, Chicago Historical Society; New York, The American Museum of Natural History, Champions: Heroes of American Sport, June 1981-1982, illustrated; Youngstown, Ohio, Butler Institute of American Art, Mainstream America: The Collection of Phil Desind, March-April 1987, illustrated on the cover; New York, The New York Museum; Oakland, California, The Oakland Museum of Art, Diamonds are Forever: Artists and Baseball, September-January 1990, illustrated on the cover; Gainesville, Florida, The University of Florida Museum of Art; Deland, Florida, The Deland Museum of Art; Tampa, Florida, The Tampa Museum of Art; Shands Hospital, Florida, Gallery 2000; Danville, Virginia, The Danville Museum of Art; Hollywood, Florida, The Hollywood Art and Culture Center; Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Louisiana arts and Sciences Center; Mobile, Alabama, The Fine Arts Museum of the South, Styles Strands and Sequences: American Realist Paintings and Drawings from the Philip Desind Collection, 1991-1995, illustrated South Bend, Indiana, the South Bend Reginal Arts Museum, Getting Real: Twentieth Century Realism from the Philip Desind Collection, September 1994, illustrated, Fitchburg, Massachusetts, Fitchburg Art Museum.