Here we have a unicorn of a painting by listed artist Earl Gross (19899 - 1993). The focus of the scene is the theoretical escape of DB Cooper after the infamous unsolved skyjacking case. All you need to do is look at the title on the reverse: "DB Cooper - Wheels Up." Then you throw on top that it's executed by Chicago artist Earl Gross, who usually focused on landscape scenes. As you can see, landscapes are there, but its the plane and the contents that puts this piece on another level.
The painting is signed "Earl Gross" in the lower left. It's cool that the artist didn't want the signature to take away from the background.
The oil on artist board painting comes out of a collector's estate in the Chicago area. The piece was framed by the R.L. Johnson Frames in Florida. The oil painting was made in the 1970s.
Here is the intro from the Wikipedia page about the DB Cooper mystery.
D. B. Cooper is an unidentified man who hijacked a Boeing 727 aircraft in the northwest United States, in the airspace between Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington, on the afternoon of Wednesday, November 24, 1971. The man purchased his airline ticket using the alias Dan Cooper but, because of a news miscommunication, became known in popular lore by the media epithet D. B. Cooper. He extorted $200,000 in ransom (equivalent to $1,240,000 in 2018) and parachuted to an uncertain fate. Despite an extensive manhunt and protracted FBI investigation, the perpetrator has never been located or identified. It remains the only unsolved case of air piracy in commercial aviation history.
Here's the link to the full Wikipedia page.
If you want videos, just head to youtube and search "DB Cooper". You'll get the phonebook.
Here’s a new podcast about DB Cooper.
Here is a short bio on Earl Gross from his obituary in the Chicago Tribune:
Mr. Gross was a native of Pittsburgh and studied at Westminster College and Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie-Mellon University.) He moved to Chicago in 1919 and resided here almost 60 years. He later lived in Evanston and Glencoe.
His art has been displayed in the Pentagon and at the Air Force Academy as well as in the Art Institute and many museums around the country.
He helped establish the commercial art studio of Stevens, Gross, Sundblom & Staltz, later known as Stevens-Gross Inc.
Here's the link to Earl Gross's full obituary:
The professionally framed oil painting measures 23" wide, 19" tall, and 2 1/2" deep. The piece is in very good condition, and lives up to the "professional" tag. On the reverse there are some framer's notes and the framer's card taped to the reverse. Please see all pics as they are part of the description.
Full disclosure. The topic of the painting spun me circles, and the execution put me over the top. Now go look for another one. Yeah, that's where I'm at. There are DB Cooper fanatics throughout the world. And then you have this hanging on your wall. Rare, unreal and wicked.
