The publication of Madeline in 1939, on the eve of World War II, secured painter Ludwig Bemelmans his immortality. It was the first of several successful picture books about the assertive little red-haired girl who lived in an old house in Paris all covered with vines with eleven other little girls. In the late 1950s, Bemelmans painted a series of quick portraits of Madeleine and Pepito the Bad Hat that were sold exclusively at Hammer Galleries in New York City. Bemelman's New York was the name of an exhibition of his paintings that Hammer arranged to be shown at the Museum of the City of New York from October 14, 1959 to January 3, 1960.
