James Dean – SOLD

Description

Medium: Oil on Canvas Board

Size: 12″ x 9″

Paper, Canvas, and Framed Prints available at James Dean Fine Art Prints

In October 2022, my sister, brother, and I drove cross-country from California to Indiana. My paint supplies were neatly packed in a small suitcase that rolled around in the back of my brother’s truck for 2,800 miles. I planned to paint outdoors. The fall leaves are gorgeous in our small home town. The weather turned unseasonably cold, so I stayed cozy and indoors and painted this portrait of fellow Hoosier James Dean.

James Byron Dean (1931 – 1955) was an American actor. He is remembered as a cultural icon of teenage disillusionment and social estrangement, as expressed in the title of his most celebrated film, Rebel Without a Cause (1955), in which he starred as troubled teenager Jim Stark.

After his death in a car crash, Dean became the first actor to receive a posthumous Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his role in East of Eden. Upon receiving a second nomination for his role in Giant the following year, Dean became the only actor to have had two posthumous acting nominations. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him the 18th best male movie star of Golden Age Hollywood.