Lost Superman Painting Found!

[samurainoir]

It was hanging in a library!

The Mystery of the Missing Man of Steel - City Room Blog - NYTimes.com

[clemso]

Wow, that's an awesome painting, i would buy a print of that for sure.

[Earth 2 Chris]

I have the Limited Collector's Edition with that cover. I've long thought about framing it!

Great story!

Chris

[wilbs518]

Great Painting.

[palitoy]

What a neat story, it's weird nobody realized it's importance.

[kingdom warrior]

Flat out my Favorite Painting of Superman of all time. When I think of Superman I think of Ward's Painting. Now I wonder if DC will make a Donation to the College to get the painting back or borrow it. It'd be nice if they could make Lithograph prints of it.

I'd love to have a print hanging on my wall. I have the treasury addition too and I have also thought of Framing it.

[Sowth]

Wow you'd think with all the comic peeps on a college campus one of them would have twigged to what it was before now, great detective work by the author though!

Hopefully they secure it well now, having worked on University campuses most of my life I know it would be souvenired in a flash by students if it was here in Oz...

[clemso]

I was thinking that, they should be commended for being such a well behaved College, I know a lot of places where that painting would have been gone or vandalized by now.

[jayihdz]

I was thinking that, they should be commended for being such a well behaved College, I know a lot of places where that painting would have been gone or vandalized by now.

or stolen...

[SeattleEd]

Anyone else read the comments?
Seems there are two copies of this painting and one was located in the DC Comics offices back in the mid 70's. So it seems there are two copies of this painting. One at the college and other MIA.
Wonder if both are originals or which is the copy.
Either way, great story and painting.

[EMCE Hammer]

I would give body parts for that.

[SlipperyLilSuckers]

What a great story. And how wonderful it hadn't been ripped.

[phil]

Amazing! An early Superman painting influenced by N.C. Wyeth. Now that's art!

[LadyZod]

This kind of thing happens pretty often. In fact my husband and I were talking about a similar incident earlier today.

Most fans of dinosaurs, and fans of William Stout are aware of the great naturalist painter Charles R. Knight. His paintings hang in various natural History museums: including the American Museum of Natural History, the Field Museum of Natural History, and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

He's the guy that defined what dinosaurs looked like for a generation.... his paintings are priceless.

Well in the podunk town I live in, there hangs in the public library a paiting of his. How did it get there?

Charles R Knight painted "Prehistoric Animals of Florida" and it was donated to the Post Office many many years ago, when the town was just starting up.

When the post office was refurbished and updated, they pulled the painting down and put it into a closet, where it sat for so many years that most forgot it existed.

When they were emptying it out and throwing out stuff, a person rescued it and thought, hey this painting of a sabertooth would look cool in the new library, and hung it there. It was a while before anyone noticed the "C Knight" signature.

Upon meeting William Stout at last year's MegaCon we had the opportunity to speak to him for a few minutes, and even he was unaware of it's existance. (William Stout has issued Charles R Knight sketchbooks in the past and is a Knight historian of sorts.)

Hearing this happen amongst painter of old, when there was no major cataloging of pieces is one thing... hearing it happen multiple times with what I would consider "modern" and "contemporary" painters (relatively speaking) is just wow.

[The Toyroom]

That's a classic painting....Goes to show you people don't realize what they have...even in this day and age.