Symphonic composer Emanuel Leplin as a painter

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Painting of Monterey HarborIn this scene of Monterey Harbor, painted sometime between 1945 and 1953, Leplin exhibits his characteristic intensity of color and activity. Painting of an imaginary lighthouse This watercolor of an imaginary lighthouse was executed by Leplin in 1970, with the three moveable digits left to his use after his paralysis by polio in 1954. It is one of 40 watercolors he painted without being able to move his hand from the page.

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Painting of the Bridge in the Japanese Tea Garden The use of swatches of paint to create the foliage in this depiction of the Japanese Tea Garden Bridge reflects the influence of such Impressionists as Cezanne, whose works Leplin saw firsthand when he studied composition and conducting with Milhaud and Monteux in France. Painting of the entrance to the Japanese Tea Garden This entrance to the Japanese Tea Garden shows the Old DeYoung Museum in the background. The swirling pattern of the tree on the left was used much later, in a painting of Carmel Mission.

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Painting of San Francisco Skyscrapers, 1950This circa 1950 oil gives an impression of the overwhelming domination of skyscrapers on the San Francisco skyline. At the time this was painted, the tallest building in San Francisco, the tallest in the painting, was the Pacific Bell Building. Today, that building must be carefully pointed out, so overshadowed is it by newer buildings that have dwarfed its stature.

"Skyscrapers" was one of two of Leplin's oils on display in the War Memorial Opera House Lobby during the San Francisco Symphony's 1959 world premiere of his "Two Pieces for Orchestra: Landscapes and Skyscrapers"






Emanuel Leplin with paintbrush

Updated: 05/1/2020 | For More information lostwhalepress@gmail.com