PBA Galleries

Original pen & ink drawings for nine works by San Francisco artist and illustrator Franz Bergmann. Includes the following:

• The Crock of Gold. 29 original illustrations. 23x20.5 cm (9x8").
• Flips. 41 original illustrations. 23x19 cm (9x7½").
• Flips, Detective. Original 50 page typescript and 52 original illustrations. Text on 28x22 cm (11x8½") paper; illustrations mostly 22x19.5 cm (8½x7¾"), a few a bit shorter. c.1940-41.
• San Francisco Flips. Two copies of the original 46 page typescript plus 46 original illustrations. Text on 28x22 cm (11x8½") paper; illustrations 24x19 cm (9½x7½"). c.1945.
• Henry. Two copies of the original 29 page typescript and 12 original illustrations. 28x22 cm (11x8½"). Also, two additional illustrations, slightly smaller.
• Goodbye Vienna. Original 137 page typescript and 49 original illustrations, most colored. Text on 28x22 cm (11x8½") paper; illustrations 22x20.5 cm (8½x8") or 23x20.5 cm (9x8").
• Scrambled Eggs. Two copies of the original 51 page typescript plus 53 original illustrations, colored. Text on 28x22 cm (11x8½") paper; illustrations 21x28 cm (8¼x11"). One additional sheet of sketches, 11x58 cm (4¼x22¾").
• Marmaduke in Mexico. Original 101 page typescript plus 100 original illustrations. Text on 28x22 cm (11x8½") paper; illustrations 26x23 cm (10¼x9"), one a bit smaller.
• Uriel for President. Text by M. Peake. 89 original illustrations. 29x25.5 cm (11½x10"), plus a small gathering of photographic reductions. A copy of the published book [(8vo) original cloth, dust jacket. First Edition.] is included. Published Boston: Hale, Cushman and Flint, 1938.

Together nine works, each individually housed in custom cloth folders or boxes, leather spine labels lettered in gilt. 

Franz Bergmann (1898-1977) is best known for his modernist mural and watercolor paintings, including the murals at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel in Chicago. Bergmann attended the Vienna National Academy of Art, graduating with honors in 1925 before emigrating to the United States. After brief stays in New York, Chicago and Colorado, he settled in San Francisco in 1929. His murals adorned the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition. He was a member of the San Francisco Art Association and the San Francisco Art Center. His works were exhibited locally and nationally. The final work, "Uriel for President," is one of only two works that we can locate publishing records for, the other, "This Way to the Circus," is not present here. At least a portion of the drawings for his "Flips" series appeared in Child Life magazine in the 1940s, the remaining works are apparently unpublished. An unique and extensive archive.