Nat Levy (1896 - 1984)

False Front, by 1957, oil on canvas, signed lower left, 22 x 28 inches, exhibited 18th Annual Exhibition of Art, Society of Western Artists, M. H. De Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, CA, November 6 – December 8, 1957, no. 55 (label verso and listed in catalog), presented in its original frame

$4,750

Nat Levy was a California painter and etcher. He was born in San Francisco and spent most of his life in his hometown. After serving in the Navy and as an aide to a member of the California Assembly, Levy studied art at the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art and the California School of Fine Arts, both in San Francisco. His instructors included Maynard Dixon, Armin Hansen and Frank Van Sloan. By 1920, Levy pursued a career as a professional artist. In addition to his fine art practice, Levy worked as a commercial and graphic artist for Foster & Kleiser and McCann advertising agencies and taught painting as part of the University of California extension program. He was an early member of the Society of Western Artists and served as its President in the mid 1950s. He was also a member of the 13 Watercolorists and California Watercolor Society. Watercolor served as Levy's main medium for most of his career. In addition to painting, Levy was a skilled etcher who enjoyed depicting scenes of the California coast. Levy also traveled and painted in New England, Europe and Asia. Levy's paintings were well received. San Francisco Chronicle art critic Alfred Frankenstein wrote, "Nat Levy's atmospheric renditions are so beautiful they seem as though they were painted with fog on his brush." Levy was one of 25 American painters chosen to exhibit at the Royal Gallery in London in 1977.  Levy also exhibited extensively with the California Watercolor Society and the Society of Western Artists in addition to the Golden Gate International Exposition, New York Worlds Fair, Crocker Art Gallery, De Young Museum, Legion of Honor, and the California State Fair, where he also served as a judge, as well as other institutions and commercial galleries, principally in California. False Front is a rare exhibited oil painting, given Levy's main interest in watercolors.