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OBITUARY
Anthony De Frange |
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Funeral services have been held
for Anthony De Frange, 60, a San Francsico portrait
painter for many years, who died September 27 in Solon,
Ohio. A native of Krebs, Okla. Mr. De Frange was a self-taught artist who specialized in painting movie stars from photographs. Most of the portraits were bought by gay customers, he once told an interviewer. "During World War II, I used to sketch the guys in my barrack," he once said. "But I always enjoyed painting movie stars. I have a fascination for them." The most expensive portrait he ever sold was a painting from a photograph of Mae West, and the buxom star bought the portrait. When he first brought it to her Beverly Hills apartment, he recalled, she looked it over and said, "Well, I like the photograph you used, but you've made me look so old. I look as if I'd been on a binge, and I don't even drink." He retouched it, and she bought the work for $2500. A good share of his business at the Geary Street gallery he started in 1968 was in painting portraits of deceased people. "One couple had me paint their 19-year-old son who hanged himself," he told the interviewer. "They said he loved antiques, and so I put it in an old frame.... I also get a lot of requests from gay men to paint their late mothers." He is survived by a daughter, Charlotte Dodeci, and a son, Roger, both of Solon, Ohio. -- S.F. Chronicle, published October 5, 1983 |
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