American Beauty, painted by Morris Hirshfield around 1942, is an oil painting, four feet in height, of a seated nude red-headed Venus holding a mirror to herself.
Galerie St. Etienne, whose roots lay in Austria, was rebirthed in America following its founder’s flight from the Nazis in 1938 and subsequent emigration in the U.S. Unlike other Manhattan galleries (or most galleries, period) Galerie St. Etienne embraces political commentary.