Ricardo’s Bar, originally on exhibition at the Wrigley building, was purchased by Mogen David Wine, a New York state based winemaker and distributor originally founded in Chicago, under the precondition Neiman painted one of the company's bottles into the bar. Approximately five years later, a buyer of unknown designation desired to purchase the from Mogan David, with this sale predicated on the removal the wine company’s bottle. Neiman complied. It is unclear where the piece was located during the wine company’s ownership.
]]>This note from LeRoy Neiman provides the history of the artist's painting of Ricardo's Bar in Chicago, through personal anecdote. The record is not only significant because it elucidates the piece's biography but also because the document provides a window into the artist’s attitudes towards both the modification of existing works and commissions.
Ricardo’s Bar, originally on exhibition at the Wrigley building, was purchased by Mogen David Wine, a New York state based winemaker and distributor originally founded in Chicago, under the precondition Neiman painted one of the company's bottles into the bar. Approximately five years later, a buyer of unknown designation desired to purchase the from Mogan David, with this sale predicated on the removal the wine company’s bottle. Neiman complied. It is unclear where the piece was located during the wine company’s ownership.
Neiman had a longstanding fascination with gambling, rendering many works engaging the subject—e.g. Chemin de Fer (1966), two related pieces entitled Working Girl at Caesars Palace (1980), Casino du Monte Carlo (1981), Baden-Baden (1987), and Desert Inn Baccarat (1997)—as well as partnering with former CEO of Caesers Palace, Cliff Perlman, on a number of occassions. The majority of these pieces were either completed onsite or made from sketches done onsite, professing to the artist’s not only interest but participation in leisure culture.
The note then confirms this interest. Rolandson’s drawing is somewhat of a critique of British aristocratic life. The image, a tableau, zeros in on two members of the Spencer family, sisters Georgiana and Harriet Ponsonby, who hold elusive eye contact. Georgiana was at that point what would be nearly $6 million today in debt. The other figures in the work also seem to have partner off, depicted in contorted asides laced with dubious smirks. Although Rolandson gives no indication on what exactly is going on, it’s clearly not the most flattering portrait. (Neiman himself describes the work as disclosing the “greed of gambling females and the brutish attention of men [in British high society].”)
]]>This note from LeRoy Neiman concerns Thomas Rowlandson's A Gaming Table at Devonshire House. The pen and ink drawing with watercolor features a selection of British aristocrats gathered around a gambling table. (Working and living on the Upper West side, Neiman first saw this piece at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where the work is accessioned.)
Neiman had a longstanding fascination with gambling, rendering many works engaging the subject—e.g. Chemin de Fer (1966), two related pieces entitled Working Girl at Caesars Palace (1980), Casino du Monte Carlo (1981), Baden-Baden (1987), and Desert Inn Baccarat (1997)—as well as partnering with former CEO of Caesers Palace, Cliff Perlman, on a number of occassions. The majority of these pieces were either completed onsite or made from sketches done onsite, professing to the artist’s not only interest but participation in leisure culture.
The note then confirms this interest. Rolandson’s drawing is somewhat of a critique of British aristocratic life. The image, a tableau, zeros in on two members of the Spencer family, sisters Georgiana and Harriet Ponsonby, who hold elusive eye contact. Georgiana was at that point what would be nearly $6 million today in debt. The other figures in the work also seem to have partner off, depicted in contorted asides laced with dubious smirks. Although Rolandson gives no indication on what exactly is going on, it’s clearly not the most flattering portrait. (Neiman himself describes the work as disclosing the “greed of gambling females and the brutish attention of men [in British high society].”)