Theodore Lukits

Theodore Nikolai Lukits (November 26, 1897 – January 20, 1992) was a Romanian American portrait and landscape painter. His initial fame came from his portraits of enthralling actresses of the Quiet film era, but before his death, his Asian-inspired works, figures drawn from Hispanic California and pastel landscapes have established greater attention.

Lukits began his professional career as an illustrator while yet in his teens. He was a yet life painter, muralist and founder of the Lukits Academy of Fine Arts in Los Angeles for greater than sixty years. He had the reputation of a craftsman who made his own paints from raw pigments, constructed brushes and palettes, and intended and carved frames. Lukits was responsible for keeping the "Beaux-Arts" methods of the French academic system sentient in the western United States, and several of his students went on to prominent careers. His works are displayed in many public collections. He was a zealot of a number of professional art organizations and won many awards in competitions. Lukits has been the subject of a number of solo museum exhibitions previously his death, and his do its stuff has been included in a number of extra museum exhibitions devoted to Tonalism and California and American Impressionism.