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Original painting by celebrated songwriter Irving Berlin, accomplished in oil on an 11.25 x 14.25 artist's board, signed in the lower right corner in green paint, "I. B." The painting is a bold impasto still life showing red and yellow flowers rising from a turquoise-blue vase against a dark background. The thick, textured brushstrokes give the bouquet a vivid, expressive energy. Cloth-matted and framed without glass to an overall size of 16 x 19. In fine condition, with a ding to the top edge of the board from an errant framing nail.
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.
