The paintings of Aaron Gorson still captivate collectors.

In February, two pictures by the Russian artist who romanticized Pittsburgh's steel mills sold at Dargate Auction Galleries in North Point Breeze for $30,000 and $18,000.

Today, potential buyers can examine another Gorson work, "Steelmaking Nocturne" (1910) as previews begin for an auction Saturday at Concept Art Gallery in Regent Square. The estimated sale price is between $25,000 and $35,000.

Gorson, a Lithuanian Jew, fled Russia and by 1888, at age 16, was working with his brother as a tailor in Philadelphia. At age 23, he attended night classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Admirers and collectors owe a debt to Rabbi J. Leonard Levy, who made it possible for Gorson to study art in Paris for a year, where he came under the influence of American painter James Whistler.

Rabbi Levy, who led the Philadelphia temple Knesset Israel, had Gorson paint his portrait in the late 1890s. The brilliant, British-born rabbi came to Pittsburgh in 1901 to lead Temple Rodef Shalom. Gorson followed his patron here in 1903.

Local art historian Rina C. Youngner, author of "Industry in Art: Pittsburgh, 1812 to 1920," said Gorson was the first painter working in early 20th century Pittsburgh to make steel mills look glamorous. This endeared him to industrialists, who began buying his work.

In an interview with The Pittsburgh Press, Gorson said he admired how "the muddy river water catches the gleam of the dying light and becomes ... running gold." Gorson also appreciated Whistler's portrayal of British industry on the Thames River in London.

"When he started to paint, he looked at Whistler and he saw the kinds of things that Whistler did with atmosphere and with fog and water and reflection. He did that with the factories" in Pittsburgh, Mrs. Youngner said.

A civil engineer named I. W. Frank bought "Steelmaking Nocturne" from Gorson. Frank, who supported Rodef Shalom and many Jewish charities, ran National Engineering and Foundry, which made equipment for steel mills. Frank, who later organized National Steel with some partners, was the first Jewish industrialist in the steelmaking industry.

When J. Pierpont Morgan and investors created U.S. Steel, they hired Frank to tour steel mills nationwide to decide which ones to buy for the new corporation.

"Frank helped Gorson, who was in a perpetual state of near poverty even while he was in Pittsburgh," said Concept owner Sam Berkovitz. "Selling paintings for a living is difficult now and was difficult then."

The painting was lined to strengthen and conserve it; the rich texture of the picture, called impasto, remains intact.

Saturday's auction also will include another industrial scene, an oil on canvas painted by James Bonar, a Scottish-American immigrant and mechanical engineer brought to America in 1885 by Andrew Carnegie.

Designated as Lot 131, Bonar's painting of the Hubbard Works on Butler Street in Lawrenceville shows a worker scurrying in the yard as smoke emerges from the mill. The painting, consigned by a private collector, is called "The Industrial Shovel King's Factory" because the Hubbard Works was a foundry that produced big, industrial shovels for back hoes and other large equipment.

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