Janós Bernát (1910-1964) - Industrial California Landscape - Los Angeles Oil Wells 1950 Oil on Board P3290
This is a spectacular work. Old Los Angeles hands will recognize the landscape. We love everything about this painting, and the artist's handling of the scene: the completely unexpected little patch of green next to the white house (with that lone round table in its center) is a master stroke.
The painting measures 24" x 34" and its frame is 31" x 41". Signed and dated in the right hand corner.
Biography from museum.u, the Hungarian museums' site, their own translation.
János Bernát, Jr. was born on 19th June, 1910 in the village of Nak. His father, a qualified joiner/cabinet-maker, settled in nearby Dombóvar with his increasingly growing family in 1914.
János, the first-born son, after his elementary school years and some years at scondary school, started working at his father's workshop and he also went to Budapest's Preparatory Drawing School. From 1928 to 1935, he studied at the College of Handicrafts. His masters were Jenő Haranghy and István Simay. As a graduate student he was commended to make sacral murals of the Ujdombovar Roman Catholic Church. His later wife, Martha Miligan (Toledo, USA, 1912 - Huntington Beach, USA, 2007) carved out Christ's body from stone for the cross at the cemetery of the earlier partner settlement of Dombovar.
His knowledge of his profession was refined through scholarships to Florence and Rome. He was already recognized in Hungary for his portrait painting talent. He often elaborated in his works of art and series several moral hints of the instance of the life and death of Jesus Christ. He and his wife decided to move overseas early in 1941. There they found home in USA's Mansfield, Ohio. The small town gave a job and an opportunity to the artist: he made huge Biblical-themed murals for the St. Peter's Cathedral being rebuilt. Besides, he founded the Fine Arts Guild for the education of young talents.
He had himself treated for lung disease at the City of Hope medical institute in Duarte, California. He could carry on with his art activities there, moreover he worked as a medical illustrator by assignment from the medical centre respected all over Northern America. He died on 11th September, 1964.
After his death, his widow sent most of the Bernat works of art home, that is how nearly 100 of his paintings arrived in Dombovar and Nak. His valued graphics are kept by Szekszard's Mor Wosinsky County Museum. His birthplace awarded him a posthumous freeman title in 2004. Janos Bernat's ashes were placed under the family mausoleum in Dombovar's Rakoczi utca cemetery in the summer of 2006.
