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Edward Melcarth
American artist born in Louisville, Kentucky / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Edward Melcarth (January 31, 1914 – December 14, 1973),[1] was born as Edward Epstein[2] in Louisville, Kentucky to Eva Epstein (born Ehrmann) and Edward "Eddie" Epstein Sr., a wealthy Jewish family.[3] His grandfather was a noted distiller and liquor dealer, Hilmar Ehrmann[3] and he was the nephew of Herbert B. Ehrmann and Sara R. Ehrmann.[4] After his father died in February 1920,[3] his mother, whose family discouraged her from becoming an opera singer,[5] remarried to Sir Reginald Mitchell Banks, KC, and Member of Parliament for Swindon.[6]
Edward changed his last name to Melcarth on February 10, 1936,[7] after he rejected his religion, to reflect that of the Phoenician god Melqart.[5] He was an openly gay, Jewish, and communist artist who preferred to work in painting, sculpture, and photography.[2] Melcarth's circle included famous art collector Peggy Guggenheim[8] (with whom Melcarth designed her famous 'butterfly framed' sunglasses that were popularized as "bat glasses" by Maila Nurmi as Vampira),[9] as well as notable art collector Malcolm Forbes, who would subsequently purchase most of Melcarth's artwork after his death.[2]
While he presented himself as openly homosexual, he did marry Joan Beer, a woman also known as Hansi Kostolany,[10] in Paris during the summer of 1939.[7] The couple eventually divorced in 1944 and he did not remarry.[7] During World War II, he served as a seaman in the United States Merchant Marine.[7]