ISABELLA ROSSELLINI BY RAPHAAL BERGER
This sensuous oil on canvas captures the enigmatic figure of Isabella Rossellini. The famed Italian actress is the daughter of Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini. Her legendary career includes innumerable modeling campaigns and award-winning films. This oil captures her in the 1980s at the height of her modeling career. You can check out the official web page here.
M.S. Rau of New Orleans is offering this painting for a mere $44,500. A bargain! It will be worth 10 times that amount in five years. What gift are you hoping for over the Holidays?
My kids all have a bunch of kids. I tell them not too buy me anything for Christmas. Spend the money on them. I still get a few things. Mostly movies.
I don’t care much for this painting. It makes her legs look too thin with bony knees.
Steve, movies for Christmas sounds good!
I would like an Apple Watch, a treadmill, and a new computer. I will be getting them for myself.
Patti, both Patrick and Katie have Apple Watches and love them!
The book that Rick reviewed today looks like something I need. Otherwise, don’t need anything for my birthday (Sunday) or the holidays. We’ve been buying CDs (Boz Scaggs was the latest) and DVDs (Jackie just got the 2009 British series UNFORGIVEN) as they come up, so nothing big.
Jeff, Happy Birthday in advance. Hopefully the Giants will win on your Birthday!
That Crime Club Collins book is $50 on Amazon, but I scored a copy on ABE for $36. Happy Birthday to me!
I believe Cap’n Bob’s birthday is also this week (tomorrow?) so Happy Birthday, Cap’n.
Jeff, thanks for the heads up. I’ll check ABE. I saw this painting advertised in the WALL STREET JOURNAL last week. I almost dropped the paper! Not your typical WSJ ad!
DAN’S HOLIDAY WISDOM
When I was a child, Christmas was when I dreamed of getting all the nice things I ever wanted; and if I never got all of them, there were at least enough wonderful things under the tree to rekindle the dream every Holiday Season.
As I’ve grown older, it seems the things I want have become more personal, more expensive—and less likely to appear under a Christmas Tree. At the same time, though, I’ve begun thinking less about myself and more about others: about what small thing I can do to bring a smile to the face of a loved one, what little thing would really bring them pleasure.
And as Christmas has become less about getting, and more about giving, it has come to mean much less to me. Much MUCH less! Without the avarice, it just ain’t Christmas anymore.
So to all my friends out there, I say, “Happy Holidays—and get me lots of stuff!”
Dan, may Santa bring you a ton of Good Stuff!
It is a great sacrifice, George, but I am willing to sell you an ORIGINAL stick figure drawing of Isabella Rossellina done in orange crayon on typing paper for just $3.75! Just think of what you can do with the extra $43, 496.25! Why, you could even buy me a copy of that Crime Club book!
Jerry, let me consult with my financial advisors on your proposal. I’ll let you know what they think.
Holiday? No holiday any time soon. If you mean the holiday in late December, then IT’S WAAAY TOO EARLY to be talking about it, so I say (fingers in ears, eyes closed) La la la la la la…
A card is good enough for me. I usually buy what I want, which isn’t much.
Rick, my sister has all her Christmas shopping done by Halloween. Diane likes to shop early, too. But I don’t think she’ll be amenable to ISABELLA ROSSELLINI BY RAPHAAL BERGER.
Since tastes in the family are so different it’s difficult to buy CDs or Videos for anyone here.
So my wife’s son did the right thing last year:
He bought her a kindle with hundreds of books downloaded, many SF and Fantasy of course and other stuff, much of which she deleted. So there>’s room for new SF which he’ll surely bring.
Everybody else in the family gets a selection of my wife’s jam – she is very creative there, combining apples from our own garden with pears, figs (also from our garden!) , quinces we got from a neighbour – and bananas which we bought of course. 🙂
And I brought some cosmetics which you can get only in Germany – or which are at least 50% cheaper there.
And then everybody who works for us or helps us like garbage men, bank people, mail woman, garden helpers, neighbours which gave us some fruit or vegetables, doctor’s assistance ….
Drum roll:
They all get Ritter Sport chocolate which I bought in the factory outlet near our house in Germany – at less than half price, more than10 kg all in all.
Many of these chocolate bars are test products, sometimes with English text or Russian or Japanese or …
So sometimes we joke:
Would you like to try this from Russia? We don’t know what it is but it looks like chocolate …
PS:
We did the same on our holidays in the USA, probably I already told some funny stories there.
Wolf, I know George will say the same thing my wife would say: you can’t go wrong with chocolate.
But the problem is:
There are so many varieties – from dark chocolate (70% cocoa) to peppermint chocolate, white chocolate and stuff with all kinds of nuts or yogurt. Really difficult to choose sometimes.
Wolf, Western NY has orange chocolate that seems unique to this area. Whenever we visit out children, we have to bring them orange chocolate because it’s unavailable where they are.
George, I’ve seen orange chocolate here, too.
Wolf, chocolate always makes a great gift!
Terry’s of York was known for their Chocolate Orange too. We used to get it in England. They also had a Terry’s bar that was very like a Kit-Kat but with slightly bigger pieces. I think they were bought out and then went out of business, which is a shame, because Jackie loved their chocolate. I checked: They were bought by Kraft in 1993 and closed in 2005.
Jeff, I’ve never seen orange chocolate in Canada.
Well, today is my birthday. Ann got me some old Hawaiian sheet music (1910s). I don’t care about the songs — some are good, many are bad — but I love the illustrations.
Happy Birthday!
Jeff, Happy Birthday! May you have many more!
Oh, and I meant to say that might not be my favorite photograph of Isabella Rossellini, but any picture of Isabella Rossellini is okay by me.
If I really thought I could sell it for $400,000 in five years, I might try to scrape up the $44,000 now.
Jeff, the art market is hard to predict, but Robert McGinnis paintings are selling well.
If I’m about to shell out $45K for a painting, I want to know something about the artist. Googling “Raphaal Berger” produces exactly two entries, the Rau Antiques page, and today’s Kelley blog! As I’m sure you know, the value of a painting in the art world depends as much on the rep of the artist – based on body of work – as on the artwork itself. I suspect Berger is merely a skilled brush wielder and master of the camera lucida. Not Worth It.
Art, I’m sure Diane would never agree to have ISABELLA ROSSELLINI BY RAPHAAL BERGER in our house. I agree that Raphael Berger is no Robert McGinnis!
I don’t like the painting at all, George, so I won’t be bidding against you.
Rick, oh what a relief!
I’m late to the party, but did Isabella actually sit for this portrait or did the artist simply find a photo of her from the 1980s and, essentially, copy it. Sounds as if the artist is ready to move into the major league of art-world grift. Move over Damien Hirst and (my personal favorite) Jeff Koons. It never surprises me when I hear that art is now considered a reliable money-laundering tool.
Deb, I don’t have the details of how this painting of ISABELLA ROSSELLINI BY RAPHAAL BERGER came about, but I do know that the ad for this painting in the WALL STREET JOURNAL was not aimed at Art lovers. A mere $44,500 is chump change for most of the readers of WSJ so it was obvious this was ad was selling an “investment” opportunity…or a money-laundering tool.
Happy birthday, Jeff Smith!
Yes, mine is tomorrow (the 19th) and I plan to celebrate by enriching the Puyallup Tribe of Indians! Yesterday I had lunch with my daughters and grandchildren (and wife and son-in-law) at an Italian restaurant! A very nice day!. One of my gifts was The Best of Manhunt, which I learned about here! Thanks for the tip, George!
Jeff Meyerson, my granddaughter Sofia also has a birthday on Sunday! She wants to hit the buffet that opened up next to a Goodwill store!
The Final Jeopardy question referred to The City of Light and the answer/question was Buffalo! Say what?
Bob, Happy Birthday! Glad one of your gifts was THE BEST OF MANHUNT. You’ll love it! Yes, Buffalo was once the City of Light when Tesla and Westinghouse were competing.