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.

Randomly XVI

 The Guardian of Paradise, Franz von Stuck, 1889.

 Willem Jansz. Cock, Standardbearer of the Orange company of the civic guard of The Hague, by Everard Crijnsz. van der Maes, 1617.

Paris, by H. Armstong Roberts, 1928.

May Night, by Willard Leroy Metcalf, 1906.

 Mrs. Warburg, Autochrome by John Cimon Warburg, circa 1910s.

Circa 1910s. (Two images.)

 Der Brief vom Liebsten (The Letter from the Dearest), by Georg Friedrich Reichmann, 1830. All the adults looks distraught, while the child is oblivious.

1931.

Still Life with Pewter Jug, Glass of Ale and Other Objects, by Simon Luttichuys, 1649.

Napoléon, colossal bust by Lorenzo Bartolini, 1805.

Jared French, by Luigi Lucioni, 1930.

Luigi Quadrini, 1928. Inscribed in French, written in Spain, when the Italian boxer was twenty-one.

Russian lady, by Alexander Sokolov, 1884.

Machaquito como apoteosis del toreo Cordobés (Rafael "Machaquito" González Madrid), by Julio Romero de Torres, 1911.

Courtesy Stephen Rutledge.

 The Menagerie, by Melchior d'Hondecoeter, circa 1690.

Szeret Engem? (Do You Like Me), by Károly Brocky, circa 1840s.

Courtesy Ralf De Jonge.

Self-Portrait, by Anna Zinkeisen, circa 1944.

Lucius Verus, unknown sculptor, circa A.D. 161-169.

Mercury, Royal Palace, Amsterdam, by Artus Quellinus the Elder, circa 1650-1654.

At the Athens Fine Arts School, by Dimitris Harissiadis, 1957.

 Artistic Anatomy Class, California, circa 1900.

Orpheus and Eurydice, by Emil Neide, circa third quarter of the nineteenth century.

Portrait of Absalam, Tangier, by Santiago Arcos Y Ugalde, 1887.

 Josef Melander, Sweden, 1917. Edit: Thanks to a follower of this blog, I can now identify the photographer as Gustav Reimers.

Partie de campagne, by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, circa 1882.

 Lovers in a Café, by Gotthardt Johann Kuehl, 1870.

Hand-tinted lantern slide, by T. Enami, circa 1898-1907.

Portrait of a Young Gentleman, by Jan Mijtens (Johannes Mytens), circa 1640-60.

Lieutenant Colonel Lord Charles Cavendish-Bentinck, by Anthony van Dyck, 1637.

Mug shot, circa 1950s-early 1960s.

Amélie du Bois, by Alexandre-Jean Dubois-Drahonet, 1821.

Fra Frognerkilen (From Frognerkilen), by Thorolf Holmboe, 1924.

Frognerkilen, by Thorolf Holmboe, circa 1920s.

Courtesy Stephen Rutledge.

Satan Summoning his Legions, by Sir Thomas Lawrence, 1796-97.

Bridge, Toronto Island, 1911.

Rinaldo et Armida, by Antoine Ansiaux, circa first quarter of the nineteenth century.

Mrs. Frampton combing her hair, circa 1885-90. (Two images.)

Sophie Madeleine du Pont, née Dalmas, and her daughter Victorine du Pont, French School, circa 1793-95.

Self-portrait, by Nikolai Milioty, 1912.

Courtesy Stephen Rutledge.

Theatrical costume, circa 1780s.

Portrait of a Viennese Lady, by Henri-Guillaume Schlesinger, 1836.

The Sower, Anto Carte, 1919.

Courtice Pounds as “Richard Dauntless” in the original New York production of Ruddigore, 1887.

Same as above.

Study, French School, 1800.

Portrait of a Young Girl Holding a Monkey, attributed to Alexis-Simon Belle, circa first third of the eighteenth century.