Description:

Noel Rockmore
American/Louisiana, 1928-1995
"Self-Portrait with Riva in Paris"
oil on canvas
1972, signed, titled, dated and inscribed lower right, signed, titled, dated, localized and inscribed en verso, framed.

Provenance: Commissioned from the artist, 1972; Wein Foundation.

Note: Proceeds to benefit the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation.

Artist Noel Rockmore was born in 1928, in New York City and died in 1995 in New Orleans, LA. Prolific, admired, and controversial, Rockmore moved often between the two cities and was especially attracted to the bohemian life of the French Quarter. Rockmore's narrative realist paintings have been exhibited in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Joseph H. Hirshhorn Museum, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans Museum of Art, among others and his work has graced the covers of Life and Time magazines.

Locally, Rockmore is also renowned for his Preservation Hall Portraits depicting its traditional jazz musicians and posters for the early years of early New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival at the invitation of George Wein, one of the founders, and from whose collection, "Self-Portrait with Riva in Paris" comes to us. This painting situates Rockmore in an art-historical fever dream of artist and model in a garret, with a plot twist. As Riva is shown posing twice in roles of domesticity and seduction, the artist is shown painting a jester as a possible self-portrait. Rockmore's signature jewel tone palette and expressive brushwork are in full force here. Elements of home life, palmistry, and European still life painting scatter the apartment, which looks out onto Paris rooftops and Sacré-Coeur, the symbol of hope, faith, and trust. Two holes in Rockmore's socks reveal the sacrifice of comforts that an artist's life sometimes entails.

  • Dimensions: 46 x 32 in. (116.8 x 81.3 cm.), Frame: 51 1/2 x 37 1/2 x 2 in. (130.8 x 95.3 x 5.1 cm.)
  • Medium: oil on canvas
  • Condition: No signs of past restoration; light surface dirt; areas of craquelure visible, particularly lower right corner; light scattered scuffs, scratches, marks and accretions; frame has marks, nicks, abrasions, light stains, surface dirt and light separation in corners.

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January 24, 2025 11:00 AM CST
New Orleans, LA, US

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