He was a dress manufacturer who took up painting at the age of 70 and became a beloved folk artist. His daughter brought him paints and art supplies to help ease the loneliness after the death of his wife. A year before his death at the age of 103 in 1998, Birnbaum went to the opening of a retrospective of his work at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art in Ridgefield, Conn. "When they arrived for the opening, Mr. Schuss recalled, Mr. Birnbaum seemed humbled, saying, 'If I would have known my paintings were going to a museum, I would have worked a little longer on them.'" — 1998 NYT obituary.
