Orville Bulman (1904-1978) American, Lion Oil on Board. Impressionist Oil on Canvas Board by the well listed Orville Bulman. Titled "Heavenly Journey," dated 1975 on the back. Signed in lower left Bulman in red on the front of the painting. Provenance: Important Palm Beach Estate Once owned by Marjorie Merriweather Post.

Overall Size: 14 x 16 in.

Sight Size: 7 1/2 x 9 1/4 in.

Frame Thickness: 1 3/4 in.

#5194

Orville Bulman, a self-taught artist, was born in 1904 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. A year later his father, Elvah O. Bulman, invented what was to become a long line of ingenious products, a twine holder and dispenser. Subsequently, Elvah (or E. O. as he was called) continued to create dispensers and cutters for virtually all goods that could be rolled up. Before long, the Bulman Paper Cutter became de rigueur for any self-respecting grocery or dry goods establishment in the early 1900s, and Bulman was expected to carry on the hugely successful family business, which dutifully, he did. After graduating from Grand Rapids Central High School, however, he traveled to Chicago for one year to work as a newspaper cartoonist before entering the business world. While helping his father run the company, Bulman's true artistic calling was too loud for him to ignore. After devoting himself to the corporation in the twenties and thirties, he exhibited at New York's Society of Independent Artists in 1937, and for a short time around 1948 exhibited with the Woodstock Art Colony. In the late 1940s he was painting New York City social realist paintings as well as dark, haunting pictures of old barns and churches. Bulman's life in Palm Beach, Florida, began around 1946 when he, after sustaining recurring injuries to his neck, began to spend the winters in that small affluent town. Although he was in traction intermittently for eight years, he was still able to paint, and he took advantage of being away from the company to devote himself to his art. He adopted Palm Beach as his second home, exhibited frequent one-man shows at the renowned Worth Avenue Gallery, and traveled extensively throughout Florida, Louisiana and Alabama to paint African-American inspired genre scenes. These poignant paintings of the segregated south (especially the Florida scenes) brought national attention to his art. (From the Biography of Orville Bulman by Deborah C Pollack).