Designer:  Karl Drerup (1904 – 2000)

Item: Untitled Footed Plate (Farmer and Llama)

Manufactured by: Karl Drerup

Country of origin: United States

Year made: 1940s

Materials: Enamel on copper

Dimensions: 1” x 6 ¾” x 6 ¾”

Condition: Excellent, with zero flaws found

Description: Here another excellent example of Drerup’s work with one of his well-known motifs of a farmer with a Llama or a man with a horse.  Similar to other identified pieces titled the same.  Signed with his initials on the bottom as shown.  Drerup is considered one of the most influential enamel artists in the United States.

Born in Germany to an affluent Catholic family, Drerup studied painting in Berlin until 1930 when he moved to Florence, Italy, where he met his future wife.  They married in 1934 and moved to Spain. However, due to the rise in fascism and the Nazi movement, they left for the Canary Islands and then in 1937 moved to the United States, settling in Long Island where they remained until 1945.  They then moved to New Hampshire where he remained until his death.

Drerup’s works have been exhibited and collected by important American art museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Brooklyn Museum, and a related example is in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. 

References: Jazzar, Bernard N. and Nelson, Harold B.; Painting with Fire: Masters of Enameling in American, 1930-1980; Long Beach Museum of Art (2006)