Beatles artwork

 

George and Pattie's painting

 Anyone know where this painting is today?

The artist Paul McCartney

 

The Painting

40 years ago this artwork of John and Sean was painted while they were in Burmuda.   The painting as far as I know, is still hanging in the Dakota.   Please don't comment on John's weight. Yes, he looks thin in these photos.   However --- I hate talking about people's weight.  I want John to be remembered for so much for than what he weighed the last year of his life.

Here is the story I found online from the artist the drew the painting.

John Lennon's arrival on the island was quite a shock for the American artist Nancy Gosnell, who ended up painting a portrait of John and Sean. John had seen her paintings at a house that he rented from her friend Rolf Luthi, she explained. "He said: 'John would like to have a portrait of Sean painted as a present for Yoko.' I said: 'Oh wonderful, I can do that.' Then I heard John wanted to have his portrait in the painting as well," says Gosnell, who was always fully booked.
Lennon and Sean – both wearing shorts and T-shirts – came to the door of the rented house. "They both sat down on the rug in the living room where I had set up my easel. Their house was on the water so I painted the scene [below] right outside their house so it looked like they were sitting on the beach. They had a big grand piano. John would call Yoko on the phone and play [songs on] the piano." These ended up on Double Fantasy.
"He spoke about his life and the Beatles and how Yoko had been his saviour, and he had been a mess and overweight and she had put him on a brown-rice diet. He did impersonations for me. I remember him doing Henry Kissinger, and he sang a little. One of the songs he sang was "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds".
John told her he "got tired of being a Beatle" because "he was writing music for teenagers", and now he wanted to "write for adults". He also asked for Gosnell's teacher's name in New York so that he could take lessons in portrait painting. Back home, the picture hung in his Dakota apartment, above his piano. "It almost seems like a fantasy in retrospect – John Lennon – probably the most famous person in the world," she says.

Japanese Fan Club

Beatles and the girls

Several girls were there to talk to the Beatles---mostly reporters from Music Life Magazine.  They were the lucky few as we know that the Beatles were offered some special girls to come up to their room and they declined and asked for paints instead.

Images of a woman up for auction again!

It is amazing that this painting is still around!  The painting titled "Images of a woman" that was painted by all four Beatles while they were in the Hilton Hotel in Japan in 1966 is back up for auction!   If you want to bid on it, then you can go here and place your bid.  Or you might just want to be like me and look at the close-up photos of the painting. 

As the story goes, the Beatles were asked what they wanted to do while they were basically trapped in their hotel room while in Tokyo.   Most thought they would like to have some Geisha Girls brought up to the room, but nope....surprisingly enough they wanted some paints and brushes.   And the four guys sat around a table and worked together on a painting.  I don't know about you, but that totally fascinates me.   While John and Paul have always been known for their artistic ways (and now Ringo with his computer graphic art that I really do enjoy), but for all four of them to work together on that painting is just sort of crazy.   And they didn't just work on "Images of a woman."   That was the largest painting they did, but from the photographs you can see that they also worked on some individual smaller paintings.  

Once they were done with the painting, they autographed the center section (where the lamp was sitting in the middle) and gave it to Beatles to fan club chairman Tetsuaburo Shimoyama.  I am unsure what he did with the painting, but it re-surfaced in the mid 1990's and was sold for 15 million Yen to someone in Japan.   It was then seen again on ebay in 2002 and then again in 2005!   Now it is back up for auction and is going to trade hands.  I really hope that some museum gets it this time and puts in on display.  I would love the chance to see this rare footnote in Beatles history in person.

John shows off the finished work Source:  Born-late Blog

Close-up on the autographs in the middle of the painting.   Source:  Current auction

photo:  Robert Whitaker

Photo:  Robert Whitaker

photo:  Robert Whitaker

Photo:  Robert Whitaker

Close up on the paints the Beatles used.  Photo:  Robert Whitaker

Photo:  Robert Whitaker

Photo:  Robert Whitaker

Photo:  Robert Whitaker

You can see the finished painting on the table without the autographs in the center

Fortunately, photographer Robert Whitaker took lots of photos of the Beatles working on the painting.   Beautiful stuff!

Images of a Woman

This would have to be one of the most valuable pieces of Beatles collectibles. It is the painting, named "Images of a Woman" that all four of the Beatles painted while staying in the Tokyo Hilton while in Japan in 1966. When they were finished with the painting, they all signed it in the middle (where the lamp sat while they were painting). The painted was presented by the Beatles to fan club president Tetsuaburo Shimoyama. The last it was seen was in 2005 in an ebay auction.