Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Ida Lupino

















The two pictures to the left are varnished to the side of a bookcase, along with a lot of early chalk drawings I did years ago. For a long time, any woman I drew slightly resembled Ida Lupino. I think it was because the length of her philtrum and the way the width of it met the cupid's bow of her upper lip were etched in my memory of how beautiful I thought she was and how involved I was with her relationship to Howard Duff. I was in elementary school when I became aware of Ida and Howard. I was at an age when I watched TV Divorce Court reenactments and thought if the judge would just have them kiss, certainly they would get back together. Howard and Ida separated and got back together a lot and as a highly emotional girl, it tore me up. I always thought she was more than "a poor man's Betty Davis." She was on a par with Lauren Bacall.

She was born on this day, as Kirk mentions in his post, in 1918. She was estranged from her daughter, Bridgette, but due to her advancing colon cancer, got to try to reconcile about twenty years of problems over the course of two weeks. For clips of her movies and more information, see Kirk's post.

8 comments:

  1. I had one friend who always placed himself in his paintings. It was a new hobby retiring from automobile design, so it was fun to enjoy his creations. Nice to hear from you.

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    1. I like that your friend thrusts himself into his art.

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  2. Thanks for the mention, Kass. Duff appeared opposite Lupino in Women's Prison. Did not know she was estranged from her daughter.

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    1. Kirk - she was a strong woman, and apparently, she was the one to enforce the estrangement.

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  3. If all your drawing had a reference to Ida Lupino, not a bad model to have.
    I knew an artist who did fabulous pieces of abstract wood art. Huge pieces that could fill a wall. and in every piece he put his cat who had no tail.
    So fun that both you and Kirk wrote about the same subject.

    cheers, parsnip

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    1. a.p. - Love the idea of a wall-sized wood mural with a tailless cat.. Kirk writes posts that remind me of a lot of things from my youth.

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  4. ok, i got to look up "philtrum" and learn something new today! she was beautiful, and your art gives her her due, and then some.

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    1. Thanks, rraine. Glad you learned something.

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It's nice to know you've stopped by. Thanks.