DRAGONETTE, Jessica (1941/43)
Location:
Present Whereabouts Unknown
Provenance:
Possibly the picture sold from the artist’s estate at the Plaza Art Galleries, 9-11, East 59th Street, New York, November 24 & 25, 1947, Sale No. 2809, Lot 164A (Fetched $20.00 – marked copy in Frick Art Reference Library).
Jessica Valentina Dragonette, born in 1900, died March 18th, 1980) was a popular radio soprano before and during World War II.
Jessica Valentina Dragonette was born February 14, 1900, and died March 18th, 1980, was a popular radio soprano before and during World War II. She married executive Nicholas Meredith Turner in 1947.
Müller-Ury met Jessica Dragonette in 1940 through the auspices of Archbishop Spellman, Martin Conboy (Lord Duveen’s New York attorney) and her sister Nadea Loftus, after singing at the Catholic Radio Hour tenth anniversary broadcast. He painted several portraits of her in the 1940s. She acquired numerous pictures by him from his estate in 1947.
Bibliography:
Jessica Dragonette, Faith is a Song, (New York, 1951), pp. 239-241, 243-244, and 300-301.
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This portrait may have belonged to Jessica Dragonette as the photograph has her sister Nadea’s handwriting on the verso. In his diary for September 15, 1943 he says he had made a change to a small portrait of Jessica which she has. This may be that picture.
