THE LUCY MUSEUM of ART

A look at the various paintings seen on Lucycoms!

The artwork seen on Lucille Ball’s four sitcoms was coordinated by the set decorator, generally pulled from props and set stock. It was not unusual for a piece to turn up in more than one location and even on another series!  Note: For this blog, we are just looking at paintings, not sculpture or advertising art.

[I am indebted to the website www.50slucy.com and their many contributors for much of what you are about to read!]

Probably the most iconic painting in history turned up on “The Lucy Show” in January 1964. The Mona Lisa (La Gioconda) is a half-length portrait of Lisa Gherardini by Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), which has been described as the best known, most visited, most written about, most sung about, most parodied work of art in the world. The portrait is known for its enigmatic grin, which Lucy attempts to mimic in this episode. The actual painting hangs in the Louvre in Paris, France. Unlike the reproduction seen in this episode, in real life it is a mere 30” by 21”.  

Lucille Ball revived the ‘Mona Lucy’ sight gag in 1977 on “Bob Hope’s All-Star Comedy Tribute to Vaudeville”.  

In the very same “Lucy Show” episode as Mona, Harold’s Art Store displays the Edgar Degas painting Dancers at the Barre – a masterwork begun in the early 1880s and continuously revised by the artist for the next 20 years.

The Degas painting

L’Etoile (The Star)

turns up in multiple locations on “I Love Lucy,” including the Ricardo apartment, the Mertz’s Hollywood hotel room, and the San Diego hotel room of Maurice Chevalier. It was painted by Degas in 1878 and follows his fascination with ballet dancers. It now hangs in the Musee D’Orsay in Paris. 

In “Oil Wells” (ILL S3;E18) a bickering Lucy and Ethel call a truce in the hallway where a framed print of L’école de Dance (School of Ballet), also by Edgar Degas, adorns the wall.

In “Sentimental Anniversary” (ILL S3;E16), just two weeks earlier, the hallway was decorated with Woman in White Dress by Leonard Campbell Taylor (1874-1969). 

Over the mantle in the Ricardo’s first apartment hangs Farm Scene by Margo Alexander (1894-1965) from her series of California Artist Provincials. This busy folk art print seems to reinforce the effect that their apartment is too small for Lucy, Ricky, and a new baby. 

In their second apartment, another Margo Alexander folk art landscape is above the mantle. 

Still another Margo Alexander print is glimpsed from the ledge in “Lucy Cries Wolf” (ILL S4;E3). Many times, paintings were hung on backing flats such as these to ‘dress up’ blank walls. 

The Ricardos had two framed prints by Grandma Moses next to their front door: So Long (1948) and The Old Snow Roller (1948). Grandma Moses aka Anna Mary Robertson Moses (1860-1961) was an American folk artist who began painting at the age of 78 and is often cited as an example of a person who successfully began a career at an advanced age. 

While Lucy and Ricky lived in their first apartment the above painting by Maurice Utrillo Restaurant au Mont Cenis (1922) hung prominently on the back wall of the living room above the piano, or the desk. The actual print was eventually gifted to Lucille Ball’s costume designer Elois Jennsen and auctioned off upon her death.

The next landscape that appears on the back wall of the Ricardo’s living room (replacing the Utrillo print when Lucy got her new furniture) is a lithograph painted by Frank Serratoni (1908-60).

The landscape print next to the Serratoni also turns up in the home of Andy Taylor (Andy Griffith) on “The Andy Griffith Show,” also produced by Desilu. 

In “New Neighbors” (ILL S1;E21) we get the one and only glimpse of Georges Braque’s Still Life With Jug and Lemons seen on the wall of the hallway to the bedroom. Braque (1882-1963) produced hand signed lithographs of this print and this could be one of them. He worked closely with Picasso to develop the cubist style of painting.

In that same episode, in the hallway outside the “New Neighbors’” apartment, is a framed lithograph of “Off to Market” painted by Mexican artist Diego Rivera (1886-1957) in 1937. The original is now in the gallery of Ferdinand Roten of Baltimore, Maryland.

In the Ricardo bedroom there is a small framed print of Major John Biddle by 19th century portraitist Thomas Sully (1783-1872). The original hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Biddle (1792-1859) served the army in the War of 1812 when only 20 and stayed in the army until 1821. In 1818, Biddle acquired 1,800 acres of land south of Detroit and in 1835 built an estate there which he named Wyandotte, after the Native American people who had once lived there. Coincidentally, for work reasons, Lucille Ball’s father moved the family to Biddle Street in Wyandotte, where he died of Typhoid in 1915. Is the portrait’s placement mere coincidence?  

BALLETIC BEDROOMS!

Probably the most iconic of “I Love Lucy” artwork is the male and female ballet dancers over their beds. They have never been attributed and may have been created especially for the show. Ballet was certainly a common theme in the show’s choice of artwork. 

After Lucy gets her foot caught in the pail of cement at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, she hides from Ricky in the Mertz’s hotel room. Above Fred and Ethel’s beds are two framed ballerina prints by Cydney Grossman titled Curtain Call (left) and Between the Acts (right).

But in “Ricky Sells the Car” (ILL S5;E4), just three weeks later, it appears that the Mertzes are in a different hotel room with different ballet prints above the beds. These are done by painter Pal Fried.

In the Mertz New York apartment, the painting on the wall above the lamp is Roses with a Blue Tit by a Stream by Jean Baptiste Claude Robie (1821-1910).  

In “Redecorating” (ILL S2;E8) the left side of the party line set is decorated with a print called “The Harvest” by F. Molina Campos, an Argentinian artist. His prints were given away and published on calendars by the Minneapolis-Moline Power Implement Company staring in 1942.

In Connecticut, the Ramsey home is exquisitely decorated with a framed print of Claude Monet’s Cliff Walk at Pourville (1882) on the wall in the foyer. The original painting currently resides at the Art Institute of Chicago. 

THE ART OF DINING

In “Equal Rights” (ILL S3;E4), the large painting on the wall of the Italian Restaurant is titled Peasant Dance (1568) by Pieter Breugel the Elder. The original is held at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Breugel was a Dutch artist, so it is odd to find this painting in an Italian restaurant.  

In a French restaurant in “The French Revue” (ILL S3;E7), the artwork on the back wall is a bit more appropriate. The whimsical abstract tribute to Paris has not been attributed. 

Probably the most famous artwork in Tinseltown could be found on the walls of the Hollywood Brown Derby. An artist named Vitch was the first to participate in the iconic collection of caricatures of the stars. Others to follow include Zel, Pancho, and Jack Lane. Jimmy Durante’s portrait took up two frames – one for his nose! 

In 1969, the Hollywood Brown Derby (and the legendary caricatures) made another appearance, this time on “Here’s Lucy”. Both episodes were filmed in studio, not on location, so the caricatures had to be painstakingly recreated by studio artists. 

In the Ricardo’s Hollywood hotel room is a print of the Georges Rouault (1878-1958) painting The Old King. This is considered Rouault’s finest work. 

Another Rouault is hanging closer to the door. This is one of his many paintings of Pierrot, a French clown. 

ARTFUL EUROPE!

Europe is the center of the art world, so it stands to reason that art would be encountered on nearly every episode when the Ricardos and Mertzs travel overseas.  

In “Paris at Last” (ILL S5;E18) much of the action revolves around a worthless mass-produced painting bought on the streets of Paris.  

On the wall of the Ricardo’s hotel room in Switzerland there is a framed Medieval print from the Codex Manesse of Walther von Klingen, a songbook written and illustrated between 1304 and 1340 in Zürich. Von Klingen (1220-1286) was a Swiss-born minstrel and composer.

On the wall of the Mertzes Monte Carlo hotel room is a well known Nicholas Lancret framed print called La Camargo Dancing.

Seen in the Mertzes hotel room are framed cameo miniatures. Similar miniatures are seen in the Mertz living room and in the Ricardo’s apartment following their return home from the trip.

A framed print of The Festival of Love by Jean-Antoine Watteau is seen in the Ricardo’s Monte Carlo hotel room.  

Also on the wall of the Ricardo’s Monte Carlo hotel room is a framed print of an antique song sheet reproduced from an original copper plate print by engraver George Bickham. The sheet of music is entitled Reason for Loving and is from the song book ‘The Musical Entertainer circa 1737 and 1739 Vol II.’

MODERN ART

One particular folk art painting (possibly by Grandma Moses) turned up multiple times on “The Lucy Show”. First in the Carmichael living room, then in Viv’s bedroom, and finally in the parlor of Mel Tinker’s (Mel Torme) family home in Bancroft. 

The famous unfinished portrait of President George Washington by Gilbert Stuart (1755–1828), who is widely considered one of America’s foremost portraitists, is also seen in quite a few episodes of the series’. This is his best known work and is sometimes referred to as The Athenaeum. 

In “Lucy Gets Mooney Fired” (TLS S6;E9), Lucy replaces the portrait of Washington with one that depicts Mr. Mooney as the Father of our Country in order to ‘gaslight’ him!  

The portrait of Abraham Lincoln in “Lucy and the Raffle” (HL S3;E19) is by David Bustill Bowser (1820-1900) finished in 1865. Both portraits were commonly seen in American classrooms, courtrooms, and other governmental buildings. 

In 1963′s “Lucy Visits The White House” (TLS S1;E25), the final scene takes place in an anteroom of the Oval Office decorated with The Bell’s First Note (1913) by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris. His paintings showed idealized portrayals of famous moments from American history, in this case the first striking of the Liberty Bell. There is no evidence, however, that this real painting ever was hung in the White House. 

In “Lucy and the Beauty Doctor” (TLS S3;E24), the painting in Mr. Patterson’s office that hides the camera is called The Knockout and was painted by French artist Luc-Albert Moreau (1882-1948) in 1927.

INTERACTIVE ART

A hungry Shelley Summers (Shelley Winters) plucks a banana from a wall art  fruit basket in “Lucy and Miss Shelley Winters” (HL S1;E4). 

A thirsty Foster Brooks (Foster Brooks) pours himself a glass of wine from a vineyard still life in "Tipsy Through the Tulips” (HL S6;E10). 

LUCY THE SUBJECT

In the season six opener of “Here’s Lucy”, painter Danny Gallupi (Danny Thomas) paints a nude portrait of Lucy Carter, although he adds a few strategic  elements of modesty before the portrait is finally unveiled.   

For the 1974 movie Mame, set decorators created a portrait of Mame Dennis inspired by Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Emilie Flöge (1902). The painting hung at the top of the stairs in Mame’s Beekman Place brownstone and is clearly visible during the song “It’s Today.”

Lucille Ball’s friend Lee Tannen inherited the painting of Lucy that was at first intended to hang at the top of the stairs in Mame, until producers realized that Lucille Ball never had bright red hair in the film. This portrait is based upon the image of Angela Lansbury holding a trumpet that was used during the original Broadway production in 1966. 

The plot of “Bungle Abbey,” an un-aired sitcom pilot directed by Lucille Ball, revolves around a portrait of the Abbey’s founder, Brother Bungle!

In “Nursery School” (ILL S5;E9), the first painting Little Ricky does is interpreted as an elephant sailing a houseboat. Lucy says he will be another “Grandpa Moses”!

When “Lucy Builds a Rumpus Room” (TLS S1;E11) she mistakenly glues a paint brush and a glove to the wall. Viv suggests framing it and passing it off as a Picasso. Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential artists of the 20th century. 

In 1970, Lucy Carter buys a painting at an auction and brings it to art connoisseur and horror film actor Vincent Price to be appraised. Price says there may be a valuable work of art underneath and naturally Harry sees dollar signs!  

When it is finally restored, and the image beneath is revealed, the painting is worse than worthless!

A full size portrait of crooner Rudy Vallee startles Lucy and Kim when they are momentarily left alone in his Hollywood mansion in a 1970 episode of “Here’s Lucy”!

In “Lucy Takes Over” (HL S2;E23), Harry has a portrait of his great grandfather (also named Harrison Otis Carter) hanging over his fireplace – but just for this episode. 

On “Here’s Lucy” painter Danny Gallupi (Danny Thomas) cites Van Gogh, Gaughin, and Modigliani as painters who only found fame and fortune after death. Gallups sells Harry his painting of a ship (which Harry annoyingly calls a “picture of a boat”) for $500!