ROMANCE AND HIGH STAKES:
YOU WIN SOME ....YOU LOSE SOME
Original Oil Paintings by D M Dent
Romance, Glamour, Passion, Humour, Tragedy, and Glory all go in to the mix both in these oil paintings and the sport of Grand Prix Racing. Here, the setting is Monaco for the 1955 grand Prix and back again the following year 1956.
1955: You Lose Some....
Stirling Moss was one of the favourites for the 1955 Monaco Grand Prix but it was taken by Maurice Trintignant winning in a Ferrari. Here, a confident Stirling chats up actress Bella Darvi who was in town for filming of the movie "The Racers" with Kirk Douglas. She was encouraged to sit in the car by Moss and did so. The boss of Mercedes Alfred Neubauer in the trilby not apparently impressed. Looking smug to the right is Eugenio Castellotti who spent some time with her, but didn't win the Grand Prix either, finishing second in a Lancia to Maurice Trintignant for Ferrari on the right. On the far left a little artistic license as just a couple of weeks before Grace Kelly had been invited to Monaco by Prince Rainer, and this is the actual dress she wore by Schwarzenbach , which featured in many a magazine. Was she there at the time of the race? Who knows but its a spirit of the age painting, and actually it's all about the cars and dresses after all!
It is about fortune and tragedy too, and driver Trintignant lived until a grand age as a wine grower in Languedoc, and passed away, aged 87, in 2005, as did Prince Rainer. Eugene may have got the girl in this image or may not, but certainly had a relationship with Delia Scala the actress and ballerina, who we also see in the background, but he was killed at only 26 years old during a private Ferrari test session at the Modena Autodrome in 1957. Bella Darvi , who lived in Monaco after enduring being jailed by the Nazis in WWII, also had a tragic end committing suicide in 1971. Grace Kelly of course married Prince Rainer, though sadly died in 1982 after a car crash. Stirling Moss outlived them all and is still with us at the time of painting 2018.
1956: You Win Some....
Stirling Moss in winning form in the Maserati at Monaco this time the following year 1956, pictured against the harbour.
Glamour boy Peter Collins, who finished second in a Ferrari, I have placed the shade of the pits with his mystery 'belle du jour' who was photographed with him a great deal that year in Monaco but nobody appears to know who she was. Sadly Peter was killed in the 1958 German Grand Prix.
The picture again is not literal as we imagine the pits where the corner trees are from where the photographers liked to shoot. Again we also see Eugenio Castellotti there.
The paintings are done in a style between French Impressionism and stylised 1950s Romance graphic illustration.
Original Oils £3750 each or £4950 the pair.
Limited Editions (100 in the edition) on canvas this size with original work added in enhancements: £375 each or £495 the pair.
