If you visited A Night at Mister Kelly’s earlier this year, you likely noticed a massive, six-by-eight-foot painting of a woman, one hand shading her eyes from the spotlight and dress billowing around her, standing in front of a jazz band and audience. The untitled piece—an oil painting on unprimed, linen canvas with exposed charcoal line drawings—is the work of acclaimed Chicago artist Ellen Lanyon (1926–2013).
Today, Lanyon is best known for her printmaking. The Newberry holds several examples of her prints, as do the Art Institute of Chicago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. But before the 1970s, when Lanyon developed an allergy to the solvents used in oil painting, she was also known for large oil portraiture. This is one such early work.
George and Oscar Marienthal, the owners of the Mister Kelly’s nightclub, a premier venue for jazz and stand-up comedy in midcentury Chicago, commissioned the painting to celebrate the club’s 1967 reopening following a destructive fire. Descriptively referred to as “Woman in front of jazz band,” it’s said to depict actress and singer Lainie Kazan (1940–), who had been scheduled to perform the night of the fire and returned to headline the reopening. For eight years, the painting hung prominently in the club’s main staircase, presiding over thousands of performances. When Mister Kelly’s closed for the final time in 1975, it was transferred to a private residence. A Night at Mister Kelly’s marked its first public exhibition in nearly fifty years.
“Woman in front of jazz band” was donated to the Newberry as part of the larger Mister Kelly’s archive in 2021. By that point, it had been removed from its original stretcher and rolled face-up on a tube. Accumulated dust and grime discolored its surface, the lower left corner showed signs of food stains, one patch was overpainted with a mismatched yellow, and the margins sported rows of holes and small tears that indicate it was push-pinned to a wall. In short, it was in dire need of conservation.
The Newberry does not usually acquire large paintings like this one precisely because they require specialized conservation treatment, present unique storage challenges, and are nearly impossible to page to our reading rooms due to their size and weight. But this painting’s relevance to Chicago history, the performing arts, and Lanyon’s own importance to printmaking history led us to make an exception. Thanks to generous support from the Foundation for Advancement in Conservation and Tru Vue, Inc., we were able to conserve and prepare the painting for public display.
As “library” suggests, the Newberry Library’s Department of Conservation Services specializes in manuscripts, books, and other works on paper. Newberry conservators recognized the need for outside expertise and engaged painting conservators at L. Liparini Studio & Third Coast Conservation, LLC. Over the course of several months in 2023, they conserved “Woman in front of jazz band,” reducing creases, reinforcing the canvas edges, securing it to a new stretcher, and removing dust, grime, and overpaint, so that it could be displayed in its best condition. We then worked with a local framer to mount the painting in a beautiful solid frame created by Artmill Services and glaze it using Optium Museum Acrylic® donated by Tru Vue. Lighter than glass, the acrylic protects the painting’s surface, particularly the delicate charcoal elements, while virtually eliminating reflections.
This high-quality preparation allowed more than 12,000 exhibition visitors to enjoy Lanyon’s artistry during A Night at Mister Kelly’s, with no stanchions keeping them from examining the painting in detail. Now, “Woman in front of jazz band” is installed as part of the Newberry’s permanent art collection, hanging just outside the Office of the President and Librarian, where it will continue to be accessible to researchers and art enthusiasts for years to come.
About the Author
Caroline Carter is a Grant Writer for the Newberry Library.