Jigsaw puzzle enthusiasts are very familiar with the art of the Wysocki's. Oddly, Charles Wysocki is the only one of the two that gets a
Wikipedia entry ... wherein it states:
Charles M. Wysocki, Jr.(November 16, 1928–July 29, 2002) was an American painter, whose works depict a stylized version of American life of yesteryear. While some of his works show horseless carriages, most depict the horse and buggy era.
His art has been reproduced on hundreds (if not thousands ... I didn't count) of puzzles, many of which can be seen on
Puzzlehistory's page devoted to his puzzles. His themes, as mentioned by Wikipedia, generally include nostalgic Americana, horse and buggy, cats, a sort of squarish symmetrical scene with vivid colors often representing a season ... i.e. a fall scene would have lots of yellow and orange, probably with pumpkins somewhere.
Here's an example; the top is from
PuzzleWarehouse, the bottom from Puzzlehistory.
|
"Pumpkin Hollow", ©1983 AMCAL. |
Again, according to Wikipedia and also from the
Charles Wysocki gallery site (wherein we find a biography written by his son Matt), Charles drew inspiration from his military service. From Matt Wysocki's brief biography, we also see the ONLY
reference I've been able to find of the fact that Charles apparently had a brother named Heronim (Harry?).
Charles was drafted in 1950 during the Korean War. He should have been sent to Korea where he may have met his fate, but right before he was to be sent out, he was granted a leave of absence to visit his brother Harry who was very ill.
As puzzle workers know ... Harry (or Heronim) Wysocki ALSO painted Americana, cats, and scenes that if one didn't know better, are indistinguishable from the scenes that Charles painted. Harry doesn't get a Wikipedia entry ... even though according to HIS
gallery website ... he is very well known American artist.
His work has been exhibited in the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Museum of Science and Industry in Los Angeles, and the San Francisco de Young Museum. Numbered among his many accolades are nineteen national and local awards from print shows in New York, Chicago, Detroit, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Three of his prints are now in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., as well as one painting in the United States Air Force Art Collection. He has had one-man and group shows at the Charles Hecht Gallery in Palm Springs and Tarzana, the Nelson Rockefeller Gallery in Palm Springs, the Ester Wells Gallery in Laguna Beach, the Touche Gallery in Laguna Beach, the I.A.C. Gallery in Los Angeles, the Heritage Gallery in Beverly Hills, the Dyansen Gallery in Beverly Hills, and the Conacher Gallery in San Francisco.
And, similar to Charles, he drew inspiration from his military service ... this time the Marines (or Merchant Marines depending on your source).
Shortly after the end of World War II, Harry enlisted in the Merchant Marines and sailed the high seas to exotic ports, which became subject matter for his early works.
Weird. One almost gets the impression that there may have only been ONE Wysocki painter. Here's an example of a Heronim Wysocki puzzle (with a
very similar theme as the one above, and also notice that it's only signed as
Wysocki ... at least as far as I can see from the photo):
Many of Heronim Wysocki's puzzles were (and are) published by Hometown Collection Puzzles who (so far as I can find) do not have a website. One of Heronim's trademarks was to place a small black cat hidden (sometimes not so hidden) in his art or puzzle.
Anyhow, I DO like a good mystery ... if anybody has more info or any links about the two brothers, I'd be very interested.