# Alfred Bendiner

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{{Short description|American architect and artist}}
'''Alfred Bendiner''' (23 July 1899 – 19 March 1964) was an American architect and artist, perhaps best known for his caricatures and cartoons.

==Biography==
He was born in [Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania](/source/Pittsburgh%2C_Pennsylvania), the son of Hungarian immigrants Armin and Rachel Hartmann Bendiner.<ref name=PAB/> He was the second-oldest of five children, and raised in a cultured [Orthodox Jewish](/source/Orthodox_Jewish) household.<ref name=Pezzati>Alessandro Pezzati, "The Reluctant Architect: Alfred Bendiner (1899-1964)," ''The SAA Archaeological Record'', vol. 6, no. 3 (May 2006), pp. 41-43.</ref> The family moved to Philadelphia when he was a boy, where he attended public schools, and graduated from [Northeast High School](/source/Northeast_High_School_(Philadelphia)) in 1917.<ref name=PAB>[https://www.philadelphiabuildings.org/pab/app/ar_display.cfm/22267 Alfred Bendiner] from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings.</ref>

Bendiner won a scholarship to the [Pennsylvania Museum School](/source/University_of_the_Arts_(Philadelphia)),<ref name=Redwood>[https://www.redwoodlibrary.org/blog/mfarias/2017/10/13/vault-alfred-bendiner Alfred Bendiner] from Redwood Library and Athenaeum.</ref> but left after a year to enlist in the [Students' Army Training Corps](/source/Reserve_Officers'_Training_Corps) at the [University of Pennsylvania](/source/University_of_Pennsylvania). He was a sergeant and still stationed in Philadelphia when [World War I](/source/World_War_I) ended in November 1918,<ref name=Translated>Alfred Bendiner, ''Translated from the Hungarian: Notes toward an Autobiography'' (South Brunswick, NJ: A. S. Barnes, 1967).</ref>{{rp|316}} but his service earned him automatic admission to Penn.<ref name=Pezzati/> He studied architecture there under [Paul Philippe Cret](/source/Paul_Philippe_Cret), and graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1922.<ref name=PAB/>

===Architect===
thumb|Moore School of Engineering Building, 33rd & Walnut Streets, Philadelphia
Following graduation, he was employed as a draftsman in the office of Stewardson & Page for a couple years, before being hired by Cret.<ref name=PAB/> Bendiner worked on major Cret projects such as the [Detroit Institute of Arts](/source/Detroit_Institute_of_Arts) (1927), the Hartford County Courthouse (1929), and the [Folger Shakespeare Library](/source/Folger_Shakespeare_Library) (1932).<ref name=Translated/>{{rp|286}} He also did early work on three battle memorials for American military cemeteries in Europe: the [Château-Thierry American Monument](/source/Ch%C3%A2teau-Thierry_American_Monument) (1937) and the [Somme American Cemetery and Memorial](/source/Somme_American_Cemetery_and_Memorial) (1937), in France; and the [Flanders Field American Cemetery and Memorial](/source/Flanders_Field_American_Cemetery_and_Memorial) (1937), in Belgium.<ref name=Translated/>{{rp|204}}

While working as a Cret draftsman during the day, Bendiner completed a master's degree in architecture from Penn at night.<ref name=Translated/>{{rp|285}} Penn purchased a former piano factory at the southwest corner of 33rd & Walnut Streets to house the [Moore School of Engineering](/source/Moore_School_of_Engineering). Cret's office designed alterations to the building, 1925–1926, with Bendiner as architect in charge. He took a year off to attend the [American Academy in Rome](/source/American_Academy_in_Rome), 1928–1929.<ref name=PAB/>

Bendiner left the Cret office in 1933,<ref name=PAB/> and opened his own architectural office in Philadelphia, which remained in operation until his retirement in 1961.<ref name=PAB/> Finding clients was a challenge during the [Great Depression](/source/Great_Depression), and commissions were few and far between.<ref name=Pezzati/> Most of his completed designs during this period were alterations to houses and commercial buildings,<ref name=PAB/> and the third story addition to the Moore School (1940).<ref>[https://www.philadelphiabuildings.org/pab/app/pj_display_alldates.cfm/18211 Pepper Musical Instrument Factory] from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings.</ref>

===Archaeological draftsman===
The [University of Pennsylvania Museum](/source/Penn_Museum) sponsored archaeological excavations at [Tepe Gawra](/source/Tepe_Gawra) and Khafaji, Iraq, in 1937. Bendiner went along as project draftsman on the 8-month excavation, drawing site plans and sections of the dig, and making measured drawings of the artifacts uncovered.<ref name=Penn>[https://archives.upenn.edu/exhibits/penn-people/biography/alfred-bendiner Alfred Bendiner, 1899-1964] from University of Pennsylvania Archives.</ref> He again worked as an archaeological draftsman on an excavation in [Tikal](/source/Tikal), [Guatemala](/source/Guatemala), in 1960.<ref name=Penn/>

===Caricaturist===
Hungarian-American violinist [Arthur Hartmann](/source/Arthur_Hartmann) was Bendiner's uncle, and his maternal grandfather had also been a violinist. In 1938, Bendiner pitched himself to the [Philadelphia Evening Bulletin](/source/Philadelphia_Evening_Bulletin) as a music critic, but with a twist: each review would be illustrated by his caricature of the featured musician, drawn ''during the performance''.<ref name=Pezzati/> His caricatures became highly popular, and he reproduced them as lithographs, earning him the moniker "The [Hirschfeld](/source/Al_Hirschfeld) of Philadelphia."<ref name=Michener/> He retired from music criticism in 1946, and collected his favorite reviews and caricatures in the 1952 book ''Music to My Eyes''.<ref name=Michener/>

===Muralist===
Bendiner's first mural commission was for [Gimbel Brothers Department Store](/source/Gimbels) in Philadelphia, in 1952. The subject was a musical event that had occurred thirteen years earlier: [Sergei Rachmaninoff](/source/Sergei_Rachmaninoff)  performing as piano soloist in his [Symphony No. 3](/source/Symphony_No._3_(Rachmaninoff)) with the [Philadelphia Orchestra](/source/Philadelphia_Orchestra).<ref name=Michener>[https://bucksco.michenerartmuseum.org/artists/alfred-bendiner Alfred Bendiner] from Michener Art Museum.</ref> Rachmaninoff had chosen the Philadelphia Orchestra under conductor [Leopold Stokowski](/source/Leopold_Stokowski) to perform the work's world premiere, November 6, 1936.<ref name=Rach/> He returned three years later to perform Symphony No. 3 under conductor [Eugene Ormandy](/source/Eugene_Ormandy) and to make the first recording of it.<ref name=Rach/> The mural depicted the December 2, 1939 concert at the [Academy of Music](/source/Academy_of_Music_(Philadelphia)), the composer/pianist's final appearance with the orchestra.<ref name=Rach>Sergei Bertensson, Jay Leyda, and Sophia Satina, ''Sergei Rachmaninoff&mdash;A Lifetime in Music'' (New York: New York University Press, 1956).</ref> Rachmaninoff died in 1943. The mural is illustrated in Bendiner's autobiography.<ref name=Translated/>{{rp|21}}

[Fidelity Bank](/source/Fidelity_Trust_Company) commissioned Bendiner to paint twin murals for its [Rittenhouse Square](/source/Rittenhouse_Square) branch: ''Rittenhouse Square, 1856'' and ''Rittenhouse Square, 1956''.<ref name=Translated/>{{rp|188, 316}} He also painted murals for the offices of [Blue Cross of Greater Philadelphia](/source/Blue_Cross_Blue_Shield_Association) (1959); and ''The Story of Man'' for the [University of Pennsylvania Museum](/source/Penn_Museum).<ref name=Michener/>

===Author===
{{unreferenced section|date=March 2025}}
Bendiner's books include:

* ''Music to My Eyes'' (1952)
* ''Bendiner's Philadelphia'' (1964)
* ''Translated from the Hungarian: Notes toward an Autobiography'' (1967)

==Personal==
Bendiner married Elizabeth "Betty" Sutro (1904-1991) in August 1938.<ref name=Translated/>{{rp|271}} They had met a decade earlier when they shared the same drafting table at Penn, she during the day and he at night.<ref name=Translated/>{{rp|238}} Bendiner described them as a "mixed marriage" between an Orthodox Jew and an "[Old Philadelphia](/source/Old_Philadelphians)" [Episcopalian](/source/Episcopal_Church_(United_States)).<ref name=Translated/>{{rp|271}} She assisted him on the 1960 Guatemala archaeological excavation.<ref>[https://www.philadelphiabuildings.org/pab/app/ar_display.cfm/733345 Elizabeth S. Bendiner] from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings.</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://americanart.si.edu/artist/alfred-bendiner-336 Alfred Bendiner] from Smithsonian American Art Museum
*[https://www.philamuseum.org/search/collections?q=Alfred%20Bendiner Alfred Bendiner] from Philadelphia Museum of Art
*[https://proficio1.campus.wm.edu/ProficioWebModule/Results.aspx?pS=alfred%20bendiner&db=objects&dir=MUSCAREL Alfred Bendiner] at the Muscarelle Museum of Art

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bendiner, Alfred}}
Category:1899 births
Category:1964 deaths
Category:University of the Arts (Philadelphia) alumni
Category:University of Pennsylvania alumni
Category:Architects from Philadelphia
Category:Writers who illustrated their own writing
Category:American caricaturists
Category:American muralists
Category:American magazine cartoonists
Category:American columnists
Category:American people of Hungarian-Jewish descent
Category:Fellows of the American Institute of Architects
Category:20th-century American people

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Alfred Bendiner](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Bendiner) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Bendiner?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.