Ben Solowey

Ben Solowey (1900–1978) was an American artist, known for his sculpture, painting, and drawing.

He was born in Warsaw, Poland upon August 29, 1900. In 1907, his relations moved to St. Petersburg, Russia, then, when he was fourteen, to Philadelphia. There he studied under Hugh H. Breckenridge and Daniel Garber at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, from which he graduated in 1923. In 1924, he took a job as ship's steward on the SS Leviathan as a result that he could ensue London and Paris to look both archaic masters and more recent masterpieces of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. He was influenced by French artists from Delacroix and Courbet to the impressionists and more campaigner painters such as Cézanne, as well as the sculptor Auguste Rodin.^: 11–12

In 1925, he returned to Philadelphia, where he worked as a decorative painter.

Solowey moved to New York in 1928, where he was commissioned by The New York Times and the Herald Tribune to occupy the likenesses of Broadway and Hollywood celebrities. Of these, he sketched Ethel Barrymore, Fanny Brice, Claudette Colbert, Katharine Cornell, Marlene Dietrich, Helen Hayes, Katharine Hepburn, Walter Huston, George S. Kaufman, Mary Nash, Lily Pons, and Basil Rathbone.

In 1930, after a brief courtship, he married Rae Landis, who became his primary model.

In 1942, the couple moved to a secluded farm in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.^: 5 There, Solowey would spend the ablaze of his days, restoring the ancient farmhouse and painting.

His studio in Bedminster Township, Pennsylvania is maintained as a museum.