In common light - photographs of Mel Fillini by Jared French, studies for "The Sea", circa 1946

 

The purpose of these images was as reference toward a further study in plaster; the sculpture is damaged but survives. 

Appearing to veer far from the original concept of the planned work, this drawing marks a further step in the process.

Which eventually led to this finished painting. (Which, if you ask me, is really rather ghastly.)

“The Sea”, egg tempera on gesso panel, 24.5 x 36 inches, 1946.

(I apologize for the small size and poor quality of these last two images; they were all that was available online.)

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Mel Fillini was a popular model who worked frequently with French and with George Platt Lynes. Other than that, the only mention of him I could find referred to him simply as "a Broadway actor." How much or how little he was was included in the ménage that included Jared and Margaret French, Paul Cadmus, George Tooker, Lynes, and others I really can't say.

Two portraits by George Platt Lynes, 1950.

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Edit: Since posting this I've read of Fillini described as being an "actor and bon vivant," with a reader of this blog informing me that he had been the life partner of artist and designer Ronald Robles (1937-2012). I also found this image of him taken by photographer Herbert Lotz in 1982. He was said to be fifty-eight at the time, which means that he would have been born in 1923 or 1924.