Cormac McCarthy by George H. Rothacker - acrylic on canvas - 24" x 24" - Original painting $2400, prints @$90 each plus tax and shipping (Prints are an edition of 50, signed, titled and numbered with an image area of 13"x 13").
Cormac McCarthy 1933–2023 was an influential American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter, recognized for his powerful prose, often bleak themes, and uncompromising exploration of the human condition.
He was born Charles Joseph McCarthy Jr., and raised in Knoxville, Tennessee, but changed his name from Charles to “Cormac” to distinguish him from the popular radio dummy of ventriloquist Edgar Bergens, Charlie McCarthy.
McCarthy enrolled in the University of Tennessee but ultimately pursued writing, which lead him to a life of self-imposed poverty in his early career as he developing his distinctive style. His job was writing and he never pursued a career in teaching or any other genre due to his commitment to his craft.
Ultimately, McCarthy penned twelve novels, two plays, five screenplays and three short stories, spanning the Western, post-apocalyptic, and Southern Gothic genres. Five of his most notable books, including The Road, No Country for Old Men and All the Pretty Horses were turned into films, and it wasn’t until past the age of 67 that McCarthy earned fame after the publishing of his novel The Road in 2006 for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2007.
I read All the Pretty Horses, and The Road shortly after each was published, and very much enjoyed the film, No Country for Old Men, but never read his acclaimed masterpiece, Blood Meridian which has not yet made its way the screen.
Because of McCarthy’s late success, I had thought of the author as primarily a 21st century writer, but was informed recently by a friend and spirit distiller, Richard Buoni, that the bulk of McCarthy’s work was written between 1965 and 2000.
To prepare for the painting, I read one of his two newest works, The Passenger, which was the first part of a two-part epic he wrote shorty before his death in 2023. In the painting, I portray McCarthy in western attire, in mostly sepia tones against a backdrop of old wagons and hills. The painting is gritty, as was McCarthy who in recent years has been hailed as one of America’s greatest writers.