JOHN M KELLY Hawaiian Soldier No. 5 Signed Framed Dry Point Etching

John M. Kelly, "Hawaiian Soldier No. 5", framed drypoint etching. Signed in the lower right corner. The title is written on the lower left as "Hawaiian Soldier No. 5".

Image measures 16"x 12.5". Frame 27" x 21". 

Born in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1878, John Melville Kelly and his wife, Katherine, a sculptor, went to Hawaii in 1923, for what they thought would be a year, to work with an advertising firm producing tourist promotional material. Kelly had an adventuresome career that included prizefighting and fourteen years of experience as a staff artist for the "San Francisco Examiner". The Kellys immediately identified with the native Hawaiians and became their champions in images and in print. Kelly was a master draftsman, whose etchings and aquatints include ravishing depictions of Polynesians. Although generally thought of as an artist of the human figure, Kelly also produced a significant number of beautiful images of the land.