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Original painting by celebrated songwriter Irving Berlin, accomplished in oil on a 9 x 12 wooden painter's palette, signed in the lower right corner in white paint, "Irving Berlin." The painting shows a bold, abstracted black bird set against a human figure and vivid red background. The thick, textured paint and simplified shapes give it a striking, modern graphic quality, with the circular cutout thumb hole becoming part of the composition. Cloth-matted and framed without glass to an overall size of 12 x 15.5. In fine condition.
Provenance: From the collection of Irving Berlin's best friend, Irving Hoffman, a Hollywood press agent, drama critic, and columnist for the Hollywood Reporter.
Although Irving Berlin is remembered above all as one of America’s defining songwriters, archival evidence reveals a quieter visual-art side to his creativity. In a 1976 letter to playwright and lyricist Leonard Gershe, Berlin joked self-deprecatingly: 'I demonstrate that as a painter—I don’t know what the hell I’m doing.' The Library of Congress’s Irving Berlin Collection further supports this side of his life, noting an 'Original Artwork' series that includes photographed reproductions of original paintings. Seen alongside his vast musical legacy, this hobby shows Berlin as an artist whose imagination extended beyond words and melody into visual expression as well.
