The following description for has been prepared entirely by the current owner, Roberts S. Fastov, Esq., and, at the collector’s request, has not been edited by Sloans & Kenyon

Note 1) The following Kleitsch biographical materials are based on information taken from the Askart.com website: Note 3) Born in Hungary, and after taking art lessons in Budapest and painting the portrait of Kaiser Franz Joseph I head of the then powerful Austro-Hungarian Empire, he went to Germany and came to the U.S. in 1901, first settling in Cincinnati, Ohio. Per Askart.com: “In 1905 he moved to Denver. Between 1907 and 1909 he visited and painted in Chicago, Kansas and Mexico City. He was honored in 1912 for his portraits of Mexico's President Francisco Madero and his family….Around 1914 Kleitsch moved to Chicago where besides painting portraits of many prominent citizens, he taught at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1914 to 1919. While there he joined the Palette and Chisel Club and participated in exhibitions where his new style of painting interior scenes with figures was shown. In 1914 he was awarded the Gold Medal by the Art Institute of Chicago….In 1920 Joseph and his wife, Edna, moved to Laguna Beach and started the Kleitsch Academy” and engaged in painting his highly popular and now very valuable Impressionist views of gardens, flowers, houses and scenes around Laguna Beach and other California venues, with trips to Europe, until his premature death at age 49 as a result of a heart attack in Santa Ana, CA on Nov. 16, 1931.

Kleitsch exhibited with Stendahl Gallery, Los Angeles from 1922-1929, the Art Institute of Chicago (1914 Gold Medal), Painters & Sculptors of LA, 1922-23; Leonard's (LA), 1923; Ambassador Hotel (LA), 1924; Biltmore Salon (LA), 1924; Ebell Club (LA), 1924; PAFA, 1925; Pasadena Public Library, 1928; Laguna Beach AA, 1928-30; LACMA, 1933 (memorial). He also won prizes and awards as follows: Gold Medal, Palette and Chisel Club, Silver Medal, Painters and Sculptors Club, First Prize, California State Fair; and Grand Prize & Figure Prize, Laguna Beach Art Association. His work is in the following museum collections: Bowers Museum, Santa Ana, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach and Irvine Museum, Irvine, all of California, Colorado History Museum, Denver, Colorado; Fleischer Museum, Scottsdale, Arizona.

Note 2): What distinguishes this portrait of a man from other Kleitsch male portraits that have come on the market and makes it extremely valuable is: a) Its historical significance, in terms of Kleitsch's oeuvre. It is arguable that Kleitsch's painting's primary inspiration and focal point is not the man depicted in the portrait, but rather the profusion, indeed, a sea of Impressionistically painted beautiful brightly-colored pastel flowers, that he decided to surround, indeed, imbed the man. He also painted the man's face and body using a soft and subtle Impressionistic technique. This painting is a very early and probably highly experimental Kleitsch venture into Impressionist painting. That he responded so positively and emotionally to the flowers and made them the dominant aspect of this painting foreshadows his move to California to be among and paint these kinds of flowers and employ the Impressionistic style for which he became a famous and very valuable California artist. It is a work of 1918 done in Chicago, and is totally inconsistent with his relatively realistic portraits that he generated in Chicago. See, e.g.:

As this offering of Mr. Fastov's California art collection, including the painting by Armin Hansen, should make clear, he is very interested in and knowledgeable about California art and artists. Mr. Fastov purchased this painting at Quinn's Auction Galleries, Falls Church, VA on 9/13/2008. Prior to bidding on this painting, he did extensive research on Kleitsch and his oeuvre, including reviewing all Kleitsch auction records and all of the reproductions of Kleitsch's paintings on Google.com Images website, which are very extensive, as they also include the numerous Kleitsch paintings that had been offered or were being offered by art dealers and institutional owner's or borrowers of Kleitsch's art and read all the biographical text on Kleitsch that he could obtain. Having done this, Mr. Fastov, in essence, analyzed carefully the implications of his research and, in effect, made all of the observations and drew all of the conclusions expressed above and decided to make a serious effort at purchasing the Kleitsch painting at Quinn's by exceeding if necessary, Quinn Auction Galleries high estimate of $5,000. If a discerning collector of or dealer in Kleitsch or in California Impressionism and/or reads Mr. Fastov's foregoing analysis and conclusions and carefully evaluates them, he or she should recognize that this painting is worth far more than the $5,000 and that above estimates of $75,000-$150,000 are very reasonable and may well be understated given Mr. Fastov's above observations and analysis; and should pursue vigorously bidding to obtain this painting, which is a riot of Impressionist coloring and technique in surrounding and embedding a figure in an Impressionist sea of brightly colored pastel flowers, which Kleitsch, to the best of Mr. Fastov's knowledge, has never come close to replicating in any Kleitsch painting, of which Mr. Fastov is aware, and may be unique in his oeuvre in this regard.

Note 3) Another slightly different perspective on this Kleitsch painting is offered. This large Kleitsch painting manifests a combination the best of Kleitsch’s favorite and best subjects, plein-air, highly keyed and multi-colored pastel Impressionist garden and flower scenes with human figures and portraits. As is stated in one of the Askart.com Kleitsch biographies: “He has been characterized as a “master of gorgeous color.” Arthur Millier, art critic for the “Los Angeles Times”, in 1933, said of Kleitsch that he was “a born colorist; he seemed to play on canvas with the abandon of a gypsy violinist.” Such abandon is clearly manifest in Kleitsch’s decision to present the blue-robed figure in this painting amidst and embedded in a profusion and sea of Impressionist bright multi-colored pastel flowers in this painting. Moreover, this painting is clearly a precursor of Kleitsch’s Impressionist paintings of Laguna Beach, which manifested and celebrated, according to Anthony Anderson, an art critic of the Los Angeles Times in 1922, “gardens rioting in bloom.” Indeed, this painting signals why Kleitsch decided to remove himself to Laguna Beach, and its beautiful gardens and flowers in 1920. Indeed, the wistful look on the man’s face, suggests that Kleitsch, himself, really desires to be able to embed himself in such flowers and make them the subject of his paintings 365 days a year in sunny California.

Note 4) The foregoing considerations and the following auction records regarding Kleitsch sales, which provide additional support for the presale estimate of $75,000-$150,000 and warrant the conclusion that the presale estimate of $75,000-$150,000 is reasonable and justifiable and that the high estimate of $150,000 is very conservative given the foregoing considerations, including the fact that this Kleitsch auction painting is much larger than some of the Kleitsch paintings which brought more than $150,000, which are smaller than the 28 ¼ in. x 33 ¾ in. dimensions of this Kleitsch auction painting. See, e.g., the above described painting sales of “A Conversation in a Mission Garden, 1924 and Woman in a garden sewing. Moreover, the auction price brought by some of the Kleitsch larger paintings is so great and the relatively small disparity between the size of the larger painting and this Kleitsch auction painting compels a conclusion that the proportionate size of this Kleitsch auction painting is sufficient to cause the person preparing the high estimate to factor in and take account of a significant percentage of the very high auction price obtained for the larger painting in establishing the high presale estimate for the Kleitsch auction painting. See below, e.g., the Kleitsch painting entitled “Highlights,” which measured 38.25 in. x 46.25 in., and recently sold for $506,000. The case for increasing both the low and high presale estimates for this Kleitsch auction painting to amounts in excess of $75,000 low estimate and $150,000 high estimate is even clearer when a Kleitsch painting that is smaller than this Kleitsch auction painting, and the smaller painting brings an amount in excess of the $150,000 high estimate. See below, e.g., the Kleitsch painting entitled “Garden at Capistrano,” which measured 22 in. x 27 in., and sold for $230,000.

Title/Subject: Tangled Branches, Laguna Canyon Signed. Oil on canvas. 23 in. x 17 in. sold for $93,250 on 12/12/2005 at Bonhams & Butterfields, San Francisco, CA

Title/Subject: A View of a French Village, 1926 Signed. Oil on canvas. 23 in. x 23 in. sold for $99,000 on 08/08/2005 at Bonhams & Butterfields, San Francisco, CA

Title/Subject: Roses in glass vase Signed. Oil on canvas. 18 in. x 21 in. sold for $138,000 on 06/21/2005 at John Moran Auctioneers, Altadena, CA

Title/Subject: Grey Symphony Signed. Oil on canvas. 16 in. x 20 in. sold for $92,000 on 06/21/2005 at John Moran Auctioneers, Altadena, CA

Title/Subject: Mission Canyon Signed. Oil on canvas. 29 in. x 33 in. sold for $108,000 on 04/27/2005 at Christie’s, Los Angeles, CA

Title/Subject: Pala Mission California Signed. Oil on canvas. 14.25 in. x 16.50 in. sold for $70,630 on 02/15/2005 at John Moran Auctioneers, Altadena, CA

Title/Subject: San Juan Capristrano Signed. Oil on canvas. 16.20 in. x 20.20 in. sold for $68,880 on 06/09/2002 at Bonhams & Butterfields, San Francisco, CA

Title/Subject: Park Avenue, Old Laguna Signed. Oil on canvas. 36 in. x 40 in. sold for $336,000 on 11/07/2001 at Christie’s, Los Angeles, CA