Hey all,
So, here's something y'all might not have seen before (unless you follow me on any social media platforms):
Groucho Marx, Lou Gehrig, Chico Marx and Harpo Marx, August 2, 1936, 28” x 20”
This was maybe the most fun I've had on a painting in a long time, and was completed a few months ago. In my eyes, it just might not get any better than a smiling Lou Gehrig with Groucho, Chico and Harpo. The image was one that I had had in my files for a long time, and though a few people toyed with the notion of commissioning it, it wasn't until a year or so ago that somebody pulled the trigger on the commission. And I’m super happy they did.
There were two major issues I had while painting this thing. The first was that I could never find much background information about the scene. On a few websites here and there, the image is dated to 1933, which was about as much as I had to go on. I could tell that it was taken in Cleveland because of the ballpark architecture, but I had my doubts about that year, as I thought Gehrig looked a little older than he did that year. I ended up comparing Lou's jersey to some existing exemplars I had access to images of, be it the jersey itself or just decent photography. I was able to date it to the 1936 season. After a ton of newspaper diving, it was apparent that the Indians only played at Cleveland Municipal on one occasion that year, as they used League Park for all of their other home games. It turns out, that date was August 2nd, in front of over 65,000 fans. The clubs fought to a 4-4 tie that ended after the 15th due to darkness. It turns out, the Marx Brothers were in the middle of a five-city tour of "A Night at the Opera" stage performances, and that afternoon made it onto the field before game time to laugh it up with the teams. There weren’t too many tidbits about the Marx-side of things, other than that they were in costume, and that they were clowning around with George Selkirk specifically. It’s a shame that there are no other photos from that day in circulation.
The second, and probably more important issue, was the fact that I had never seen a copy of the photo in stellar quality--all of the versions I had seen were pretty blown out, thereby eliminating a lot of crucial painting information for the painting. It's a semi-common problem with photos showing bright sunlight unfortunately, and that's doubly-so when you're combining black and white photography with the fact that the image was taken 80 years ago. It took a while to find something I could work off of, and even then, it wasn't crystal clear, but in the end, I think it turned out to be a really nice piece. And let's face it, the subject matter carries it.
One thing the light DID lend itself nicely too was all of the reflected light coming back into those shadows. You can see that especially in the Lou whether it’s the hints of the green from Chico’s coat reflecting back into the jersey, or the lit fabric coming back into Gehrig’s chin and jaw.
Hope you guys dig this as much as I did making it. Please feel 100% free to critique, comment or ask questions. Always.
Thanks for reading!
Graig