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JEAN HERBLET (Boris O'Klein) 1893-1985
(renowned animal artist) circa 1940s
Vintage Signed Original Watercolor "Spaniel & Fowl"
Excellent vintage condition Hand signed Matted and Framed 23" x 19" Text or email with any questions....thank you.
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JEAN HERBLET (Boris O'Klein) If you had visited Paris on a vacation anytime during the 1930s to the 1950s, odds are you would have brought back a dog print as a souvenir. These were very popular at the time. Called "The Dirty Dogs of Paris", this series of etchings was created by an artist who went by the multi-ethnic name "Boris O'Klein".. His real name was Arthur Klein and he was born in Moscow, Russia in 1893. His family emigrated to the Alsace when he was a boy. After serving on behalf of the French in World War I, he moved to Paris. He settled in Paris after World War 1 and became a prolific artist well known for his watercolors and hand colored etchings of dogs getting into mischief and he signed these images using his real name Boris O'klein. O'Klein's period of greatest activity as an artist was during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. O'Klein also painted with similar technique and in a more classical style many serious animal subjects, often a hunting dog with a duck, under the pseudonym "Jean Herblet"...as with this piece. O'Klein emigrated to France as a boy and became a successful magazine illustrator in Paris during the 1930s. The story goes that he spent hours watching the stray dogs in the streets outside his studio and realized that their personalities weren't all that different from people. He was inspired to create a few cartoons of the dogs doing what dogs do. . . going after trees or hydrants, chasing and sniffing each other. The dog cartoons were just a lark. His real passion was painting hunting and wilderness scenes. But he realized the money making potential of the "Dirty Dogs" (as they became to be known much later), and supplied a series of etchings to gift shops and galleries all over Paris. Irish Setters, Springer Spaniels, Bloodhounds, Golden Retrievers, Labrador Retrievers were all featured. They became hugely popular and overshadowed all of his other work. Eventually, they even overshadowed the artist who created them. Thus Jean Herblet became the name used for Boris O'Klein's best work, and his most serious efforts. Boris O'Klein passed away in 1985 leaving many mysteries for his followers to dwell on. Email with any questions..........thank you.
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