Courtroom, layout artist David Rose dies, 95

Courtroom artist David Rose, whose sketches of the Imelda Marcos and Klaus Barbie trials were seen by millions of TV viewers and newspaper readers worldwide, died March 4 at his Hollywood home. He was 95.

The cause of death was thought to be complications from pneumonia, his daughter Lisa told the Los Angeles Times.

Before his long career as a courtroom artist, Rose was a layout artist at Walt Disney Studios from 1936 to 1940. From 1943 to 1945, he was posted to the U.S. Army Film Corps under the command of Col. Frank Capra. The unit was responsible for making such training and propaganda films as the animated Private Snafu series.

An illustrator and designer at various film and television studios from 1945 to 1960, Rose was an instructor at Otis Art Institute and various other universities and art societies.

"He's one of the old-timers of the courtroom art world," said friend and agent Steven Grossfeld. "Unfortunately, there are so few of them left…. He was someone they emulated."

As part of the U.S. Army Film Corps, Theodor Geisel -- better known as Dr. Seuss -- was Rose's superior officer and a lifelong friend, Grossfeld said.

Rose was born on March 10, 1910 in Malden, Massachusetts to immigrants who had moved from Russia to escape Czarist persecution.

During his tenure as a courtroom artist, he received an Emmy Award nomination for his coverage of the Pentagon Papers trial.

His artwork is included in the Library of Congress collection, as well as the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Rose rarely sold his work in the past, except for a handful of judges and prosecuting attorneys.

The medium that he worked in depended on how fast he needed to complete his assignments. While working for CNN, NBC and ABC, his deadlines were daily, so he worked in color markers or pencils and ink. As soon as the court adjourned, his work was on its way to the covering TV correspondent for broadcast.

Rose began his formal study of art in the 1930s. He studied in Haifa, Israel, and at the School of Music and Fine Arts in Boston. In 1934, he gradated from the Massachussetts College of Art. From school, he migrated to California, working for such well-knowns as Walt Disney.

"To put bread on the family table, I used my raw art-school skills in the advertising agencies of Boston and New York," Rose wrote. "Then, on to the film and television factories of Hollywood."

One night following his war service in the war, Rose was at a dance in Los Angeles. He met Ida Claire Shapiro, a sculptor and art teacher (at Fairfax High School) who would become his wife.

"The story I heard was … she came up and sat on his lap," Lisa Rose said. "He couldn't refuse. She had her eye on him."

The two married in August 1945 and lived and created together for decades.

Besides Disney, Rose worked as an animator, layout artist, publicity artist, art director, illustrator and designer at Warner Bros. and Universal Pictures, his daughter said.

His assignments brought him to the courtrooms of Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York, Paris, and Israel to capture images of the sensational trials of our time. His subjects included the famous and the infamous: Daniel Ellsberg, Gary Gilmore, Claudine Longet, Rodney King, Wayne Williams, Patty Hearst, Sirhan Sirhan, members of the Manson family.

During the 1990 trial of Imelda Marcos, one of his sketches of her was so admired by the former First Lady of the Phillipines that she signed it sketch along with Rose.

"The camera sees everything, but captures nothing," Rose told the Los Angeles Times in 1986. "It merely gets everything in the room. We learn to leave out the nonessential and emphasize what is important."

David Rose was predeceased by his wife and a daughter, Marsha Rose-Shea. A memorial service will be held for Rose at noon Sunday, March 12 at Mount Sinai Memorial Park, 5950 Forest Lawn Drive, Los Angeles.

Daniel Ellsberg -- from the Pentagon Papers trial, April 17, 1973, as sketched by David Rose. From Gremlin Fine Arts Gallery (www.thegremlin.com).