In the 1949 film “Adventure in Baltimore,” Shirley Temple lays Dinah Sheldon, a young artist who goes against the conventions of the day by seeking equality, wearing 2 petticoats instead of 5, and wanting to paint nudes. Below, she paints a man sleeping on a bench while a group of onlookers critique her work.
Dinah gets into trouble for doing a painting of “The Spirit of Labor,” which portrays a scantily clad local young man, looking “half angel, half Hercules.”
As close as we get to the painting:
The Los Angeles Examiner reported that the portrait of “Tom” (Shirley’s then husband, John Agar) seen in the film was painted by artist James Korn, who also coached Temple for her painting scenes. Shirley herself dabbled in the arts. Below you can see her at home doing some fashion sketches:
Would you purchase a Temple original?
Since it’s been over 2 years since I last worked on a canvas, I decided it was high time to remedy that. Who would be my subject? Shirley, of course!
I picked a pose from “Poor Little Rich Girl” (1936) in her costume from one of my favorite dance routines of all time, “Military Man.” My first step in painting is to do a rough sketch with a gray colored pencil on the canvas as my guide (this one is 12" x 12"). I was originally going to do a posterized look, thinking it would be easier. Unsatisfied with how it looked, I decided to go full tilt and make it as realistic as possible.
I was a little bit rusty, but it didn’t take long for me to remember my number one passion. I was very pleased with the result.
I don’t plan on letting another two years go by before my next one!
See more of my paintings at my main website.
