SPELLMAN, Francis Archbishop (1942)
Description:
Three-quarter length seated in fur cape with red biretta, mitre and book on table beside him. Signed and dated upper left ‘A. Muller Ury 1942’.
Location:
Present whereabouts unknown
Francis Joseph Spellman was born on May 4th, 1889 and died on December 2, 1967. He was ordained on May 14, 1916 and rose to become Archbishop of New York on April 15, 1939 and was created a Cardinal in February 1946. He owned a portrait of Pope Pius XII by Muller-Ury and indeed was shown sitting in front of it in a photograph reproduced on the cover of Life, January 21, 1946.
A portrait of Spellman was exhibited at FRENCH & CO. INC., 210, East 57th Street, New York, April 21 – May 3, 1947, No. 7, and was mentioned in American Art News, Vol. XLVI, April 1947. It is not known which version of his portrait was displayed there. It may well have been this one.
The duotone photograph in the artist’s papers bears on the verso the stamp of photographer Peter A. Juley & Son, New York.
