Untitled (Leather Vest), 1978.

Mixed media drawing on paper.

Signed and dated on the bottom left.

17 3/4 x 23 1/2 in (45 x 59.7 cm).

Notes:

Richard Rosenfeld is a veteran fashion illustrator and educator in the United States. Rosenfeld began his studies at the Rhode Island School of Design and graduated from Parsons School of Design, New York, in 1967. He established himself within the American fashion industry, producing illustrations for Vogue, Women’s Wear Daily, The New York Times, Mademoiselle and Glamour magazine, in addition to commissions for major department stores. 

Parallel to his fashion illustration and teaching career, Rosenfeld produced an extensive body of male figurative and homoerotic art. Beginning in the late 1970s, his work appeared in gay men’s publications such as Honcho, Mandate, and Playguy, where his illustrations were prized for their “definitive eroticism.” [1]

Working primarily from live models in varying states of undress, Rosenfeld combines colored pencils, pastels, and watercolors rough sketched on vellum paper. His figural studies have been praised for their immediacy which recall the psychologically charged draftsmanship of Egon Schiele: 
 

“[Rosenfeld] applies rapid, determined, staccato-like strokes with a minimum of embellishment. In just a few minutes the page is composed, the figure is there, a psychological moment is captured, and an element of mystery is expressed.” [2]

His first solo exhibition was presented at Leslie-Lohman Gallery in SoHo in 1978, curated by Charles Leslie, followed by a second one-man show hosted by the Leslie-Lohman Gay Art Foundation in 1981. Rosenfeld’s contributions to queer visual culture were revisited in the 2014 exhibition Stroke: From Under the Mattress to the Museum at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art. Curated by fellow erotic artist Robert R. Richards, the exhibition examined the artistic significance of illustrations published in historic gay magazines and showcased the work of Rosenfeld and his contemporaries including Michael Kirwan, Tom of Finland, Kent Neffendorf, Olaf Odegaard (Olaf), Dom Orejudos (Etienne), and Bill Schmelling (The Hun).

[1] “Art Forms”, Honcho vol. 2, no. 14 (June 1979), p. 24.

[2] Rob Hugh Rosen, “A Romantic at Heart: Richard Rosenfeld and his Art,” The Archive: The Journal of the Leslie/Lohman Gay Art Foundation, no. 24 (Summer 2007), p. 12.

Paper toning consistent with age.

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