Name: ALEXANDER LEYDENFROST (1888-1961)
Brand: TWO WORKS OF NUCLEAR ATTACK ON WASHINGTON, D.C.: MISSILE INTERCEPTION AND EVACUATION ROUTES
Price: 16000.00 USD
Availability: SoldOut

ALEXANDER LEYDENFROST (1888-1961)
TWO WORKS OF NUCLEAR ATTACK ON WASHINGTON, D.C.: MISSILE INTERCEPTION AND EVACUATION ROUTES
the first signed a. Leydenfrost (lower right); the second signed a. Leydenfrost (lower left)
each charcoal and tempera on paper
the first 10 x 16 in. (25.4 x 40.6 cm); the second 20.5 x 37.5 in. sight size (52 x 95.5 cm)
Executed circa 1954.

Norman Brosterman (b. 1952), New York.
Acquired by the late owner from the above, 2001.

"5-4-3-2-1 and the Hydrogen Age is Upon Us," Life, 12 April 1954, illustrated (second work)
Norman Brosterman, Out of Time: Designs for the Twentieth-Century Future (New York, 2000), pp. 82-83, illustrated (both works)

Tacoma, Washington, Washington State Historical Society, Out of Time: Designs for the 20th Century Future, 11 November 2000-7 January 2001; also, Lansing, Michigan, Michigan Historical Museum, 27 January-25 March 2001; New York, New York Historical Society, 14 April-10 June 2001; Laramie, Wyoming, University of Wyoming Art Museum, 30 June-26 August 2001; Fargo, North Dakota, Plains Art Museum, 1 December 2001-27 January 2002; Springfield, Massachusetts, 5 October-1 December 2002.

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Lot Essay

5-4-3-2-1 and the Hydrogen Age is Upon Us. Two remarkable aerial views of the nation's capital under threat of nuclear bombs.

"Alexander Leydenfrost had the remarkable ability to render imaginary subjects as if they were black-and-white photographs. Many of his drawings, published in Life magazine after World War II, such as [an] early depiction of incoming warheads and anti-missiles ... The article [that the second work was published in] described the fact that the entire city would need to be emptied in the two-hour warning period before impact and suggested taking the bus to relieve crowding on the roads" (Brosterman).