Anyone heard of Vitt Rogatski?

Lon Haverly · 02-12-2002, 06:13 PM

I met him 6 years ago two months before his death. He stood watching me draw at my mall studio for a long time. He finally said, "I have finally met someone who draws like I do!" I turned to him and asked about him. He was very old. He said he was an art teacher at the local community college teaching portrait drawing. I asked him what method he used. He said he made his students meticulously copy drawings of Walter Foster and others. I was delighted, as that is somewhat how I learned from my grandfather. When asked, he said he was trained in Florence, Italy, where he was only allowed to copy the great drawings and paintings of the masters for three years, and nothing else. Just copy. That is all I learned of him until two months later, when my neighbor at the mall mentioned that she saw me talking to an elderly artist, and if I remembered him. He had died the previous day. He was her neighbor. I told her I recalled the teacher at the college. She told me the rest of his story. He was a teen in Poland during the German occupation. His life and that of his little brothers and sisters was spared because he could draw portraits of the Nazi soldiers so beautifully that they would line up at his door. After the war, he was adopted into an Italian family who put him into the art school there. By then he was already a legend. He painted all the heads of state in Europe, moved to Hollywood and painted the stars, and painted Nancy Reagan for the White House. He later moved to Eugene to retire and teach. Good story, heh?

Cynthia Daniel · 02-12-2002, 09:14 PM

Lon,

What a wonderful, moving story. I searched the web for something on him, but I found nothing...too bad.

Steven Sweeney · 02-14-2002, 08:14 AM

Wonder if the "local community college" would have any information. If concerned about privacy issues, maybe they'd let you post a note on the art area's bulletin board seeking information from anyone who might have known or worked with him. Perhaps, too, someone on board this site has ready access to a records search service and could look for an obituary in the area newspaper archives, or something in local court records.

Lon Haverly · 02-14-2002, 01:51 PM

Steven, I have indeed contacted the college, and also have again spoken to his neighbor. She is putting me in touch with his living mate of the last ten years, whom I wish to interview to help in writing the details of his story. I have alot pf questions to ask her. I will let you know if I get to talk to her.

Lon

Lon Haverly · 04-08-2002, 12:15 AM

I got an interview with his friend of his last ten years. I learned some funny things about him, some of which cleared up misinformation.

He was not Jewish, poor, nor did he draw German Nazis to escape death!!! But he was in Poland when the war started. He was a Count, and very well educated from a very rich industrial family. At twenty, he joined the Polish army. After 11 days of fighting, he was captured and held in a prison camp for a year. He escaped, fled to Egypt, where he learned that his uncle had joined the RAF. He never was allowed back in to see his family in Poland, and was cut off from all financial support from them. He enlisted in the RAF (Royal Air Force of England) and flew a P-51. Was shot down several times. After the war he was given free education at Oxford for his service to England, then went to Italy to study at the art institute in Florence. He painted several heads of state in Europe, including the Belgian King.

He married a rich American of Venezualan descent, and came to Hollywood, where he successfully continued his painting career.

Here is a funny note. He once was commissioned to paint Gina Lollobrigida for MGM. After he finished the painting and was paid, she sued MGM, quit and moved back to Italy. MGM never took delivery on the painting. He had another commission for a lady who was not physically attractive. She wanted him to use her face, but make up a composition for a full figure painting. He washed off the head of Gina Lollobrigida, and painted her's in place! She was very well pleased.

Here is a photo of him painting Esther Williams, with whom he had a secret affair. MGM actually bought a house in Phoenix for him and paid him handsomely to move there to hide the scandal with their most successful starlet.