“Young Girl – Virgin Islands” (1964)
By Larry Gluck (1931-2012)
14 x 21 in, watercolor and pencil on paper
Coppola Collection

Larry Gluck (born 1931) began drawing at a young age and studied under the Italian portrait master Giuseppe Trotta, a classmate of Pablo Picasso. After vacationing in the Virgin Islands with his wife in 1961, the couple settled there, and Larry became a well-known artist painting the landscape and people of the Virgin Islands.

Larry explained, “it was only watercolor with its intrinsic beauty of transparency and pure color that could capture the radiance and excitement of St. Thomas.”

It wasn’t long before the radiance and excitement expressed through his work caught the eye of locals and visitors alike. First came a commission from the Virgin Isle Hilton, then from Bluebeard’s Castle to provide tropical landscapes for all their rooms. Indeed, so many of his originals mysteriously went missing after guests checked out that hotel managers were forced to bolt his work to the walls.

He and his family relocated to Los Angeles, and in 1975, opened their own art school, Mission: Renaissance. Larry pioneered the first complete step-by-step fine art program, isolating and codifying the principles of drawing and painting – The Gluck Method of Fine Art Instruction.