Denys Wortman
Quotes by other Artists and Awards
"When I was on the New York Tribune in 1920, I remember being sent with Denys Wortman to do an articale about the king of the hobos. I had to write the piece and he had to draw the pictures, and of course the pictures were far better than the piece. I have forgotten now who the king of the hobos was, but I do remember that he was a very nice man, and I often think that due to this experince Denys Wortman created the characters of Mopey Dick and the Duke. I have never forgotten his intense interest in life around him, an interest which marked the beginning of his career and has never waned since. His humor and his sympathy have always struck me as being inexhaustible, and now thirty-two years later, I know they are."
- John P. Marquand
"Mopey Dick and the Duke are not only actors but commentators; and they have acquired through the years an almost symbolic character, standing for vagrant and perhaps hidden longings for the carefree life that exist in all of us. Long may they continue!"
- Kenneth Hayes Miller
"Denys Wortman will supply future historians with the most accurate and vivid record of life in American cities. He has the rare irony needed to extract the poetry that hides all round every one of us."
- A. Hyatt Mayor,
Curator of
Prints,
The Metropolitan
Museum of Art
"In Denys Wortman's drawings I have consistently found a gift for characterization, a knowledge of form, a sensitivity to tonal values, a compositional power, and a linear distinction which places them in a class shared by the graphic work of very few others."
- John Taylor Arms, N.A.
"One thing I have always admired so much about the work of Denys Wortman is that he is technically so attuned to his subject matter. Certainly his work has contributed a great deal to make us understand many interesting types of people".
- Norman Rockwell
"I am very happy to see the remakably fine drawings of Denys Wortman in book form. One of the greatest newspaper artists of our period, his perception of character goes very deep, very deep indeed for the press, or for the field of fine arts as well."
- Riginald Marsh
"Denys Wortman has long been a special admiration of mine. His drawings are brilliant, and what is equally important, they have great humor."
- H. T. Webster
"We cartoonists are happy that Denys Wortman has thrown in his lot with our profession. With his great talent he had his choice of all branches of the arts. Besides, Denny is a great guy - with a blue eye that never loses its joyous twinkle."
- Rube Goldberg
"It would be wonderful if there were more drawings in public print in this country comparable to Denys Wortman's. We might then get back to our old love of personal idiosyncracies and, getting there, be rid of the regimentation, that influence of the machine, by which we have been swamped."
- Guy Pene duBois
