Symeon Shimin

Tonia Shimin, the daughter of Symeon Shimin is making her late father’s art and book of art available to collectors.

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About the Artist

Symeon Shimin was born in Astrakhan, Russia in 1902. His family immigrated to the United States in 1912. Interested in drawing, Shimin apprenticed himself to a commercial artist at age 16 to help support his family. He attended art classes at Cooper Union Art School at night. In 1929, after working as a freelance commercial artist and briefly studying in the studio of George Luks, Shimin spent a year and a half in France and Spain. He returned to New York and in 1936 he was awarded a contract by the Public Works Arts Project, to paint a mural, Contemporary Justice and the Child, in the Department of Justice building in Washington, D.C. which won wide acclaim and still stands today. His paintings have been exhibited by the Whitney Museum in New York, The Chrysler Museum of Art. The Museum of Modern Art, N.Y.  among other museums throughout the United States. Shimin’s work in children's books began in 1950. Subsequently he became a greatly respected illustrator of 57 books for children, including two that he also authored.   Among other work early in his career, Shimin painted large-scale murals for Hollywood films, creating the original Poster for Gone with the Wind. He died in New York in 1984. Throughout his life his deep commitment towards justice and belief in the beauty of the human condition were paramount to the way he lived and painted.