?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 5,000 - $ 8,000
GEORGE GERSHWIN La Belle Hayes.
Color pencils on tan wove paper. 280x218 mm; 11x8 1/2 inches. Signed and titled in pencil, lower recto (partially faded).
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Gershwin (1898-1937) is best-known as a composer and pianist whose Rhapsody in Blue and compositions for An American in Paris and Porgy and Bess are among the most important American musical compositions of the 20th century. As an artist, he often doodled portraits of his friends while speaking to them on the telephone. The sitter of this portrait, believed to be Helen Hayes, may have been a friend of the musician as they were both influential in the theater world in the 20th century. Their paths likely crossed often and she liked to recall how he once brushed chocolates off her dress after she sat on some at a party.
