East Harlem artist seeking to sell grand...

East Harlem artist seeking to sell grand...

Richard Harbus for New York Daily News

East Harlem-based artist Robert Seyffert stands next to ‘The Perfect Policeman’ a portrait painted by his grandfather, Leopold Seyffert. ‘The Perfect Policeman’ was commissioned in 1934 by then-New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia.

Robert Seyffert is looking to sell a celebrated police officer.

The cop in question is 78 years old this month and sits in profile on an easel in Seyfferts Hunts Point studio in the Bronx.

Thanks to a loving restoration he looks none the worse for wear despite spending decades in storage; the uniform is crisp, the badge shiny, the gaze in the left eye appropriately steely.

Its a painting called The Perfect Policeman, and when Seyfferts grandfather, Leopold Seyffert, painted it in March, 1934, newsreels of the day recorded his every brush stroke.

Thats because Leopold Seyffert was one of the rock star portrait artists of his day. His clients included some of the most important people of his time and in our countrys history: millionaire industrialists Henry Clay Frick and Andrew Mellon sat for him, as did people named Arden, Heinz, Kraft and Taft. Much of his work is in museum collections around the country, including the Smithsonian and the National Portrait Gallery.

Leopold Seyfferts portrait of AFLCIO founder Samuel Gompers hangs in the state capitol in Albany.

And he was famous enough to hobnob with writer Ernest Hemingway while traveling in France in 1931.

My grandfather was a businessman, said Robert Seyffert, an East Harlem resident and himself a successful artist who also teaches art at The College of Mount Saint Vincent in the Bronx. His bread and butter came from the bankers, lawyers, doctors and professionals. He sold those commissions for a lot of money. In 1914 he was said to be getting $ 33,000 a painting.

Most of his paintings he did from life, Robert said. These people came and sat for him. Andrew Mellon came back for ten sittings, two hours each time.

Robert was only 4 years old when his grandfather di ed in 1956. He would learn about him through his father, Peter, and uncle, Richard, who is also a successful artist. Works by each of them, as well as by his sister, Mary Louise, and his late grandmother, Helen Seyffert, adorn the walls of Roberts studio.

I did not know my grandfather, but I know him from the family stories, Robert said. My father and uncle spoke about him all the time.

Leopold Seyffert had a great sense of humor, said Robert, who wrote the Wikipedia entry on his grandfather. He was a good friend to a lot of people, very likeable, and hard working.

Also, Robet noted, my father and uncle were unhappy with the fact he divorced my grandmother (the painter Helen Fleck) to marry one of his models (Bobbi.)