ARMSTRONG (Louis, 1900-1971, “Satchmo”, American Jazz Trumpeter & Bandleader) & Juliet PANNETT (1911-2005, Portrait Painter, FRSA)

Charcoal Portrait of Satchmo by Pannett signed,  together with  a photo of him, signed and inscribed “To Juliet from Satchmo, Louise Armstrong”, showing him seated at a dressing table being given a manicure by Beryl BRYDEN (1920-1988, Jazz Singer), he is looking back over his shoulder at the camera and Beryl is laughing at the camera, the artist is sitting at the end of the table working on the portrait, 6” x 5½” in frame 8½” x 8½”, the portrait 16½” x 12” in frame 26” x 22”, no place, no date circa

Juliet Pannett FRSA exhibited at the Royal Academy, Royal Society of Portrait Painters, Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours, and various local galleries in England,America and Hong Kong. She has 21 portraits in the National Portrait Gallery collection and a number in the House of Commons.
Among her portraits, many for official bodies, are ones of the Queen and other members of the Royal Family, Sir Winston Churchill, Douglas Bader, David Cecil and C.S. Lewis. Her portraits are done from life and have that spontaneity often lost in more finished works by any artist. She gave up painting after the birth of her children as she uffered from depression but she started again in the late 1940’s. Among her subjects were Field-Marshal Montgomery, film director Jean Cocteau, athlete Chris Chataway, Louis Armstrong and Leonard Bernstein. An exhibition of her work, under the title Juliet Pannett: Chronicler of her Times was on display from 8th December 2004 to 12 June 2005 at the National Portrait Gallery in celebration of her ninety-fourth year.
Ella Fitzgerald once said of Bryden that she was "Britain's queen of the blues". In 1945, after the war had ended, she moved back to London, hoping to start a music career. She also worked with Mick Mulligan and George Melly at London jazz venues such as the Cook's Ferry Inn in Walthamstow and became a supporter of visiting American jazz acts when the Musicians Union ban was lifted and befriended amongst others, Buck Clayton, Louis Armstrong, and Bud Freeman with whom she recorded. During Louis Armstrong's British tour in late 1956, he appeared at the Humphrey Lyttelton Club in London, where Beryl Bryden also performed.

Item Date:  1956

Stock No:  33025