This lot is closed. Bidding ended on 5/11/2001.
The tell-tale etchings of John Lennon have fetched considerable prices from art collectors, and we are particularly pleased to offer one of Lennon's most interesting pencil drawings, a self-portrait of the ex-Beatle on Apple Records stationery clearly signed by him. Lennon was more than an art dilettante. Before getting into music, he studied for three years at the Liverpool Art Institute. Not even the stupendous success of the Beatles deterred Lennon from his art, which took the form of pen and ink line drawings on lithographs, serigraphs and even copper etchings of photographs. Lennon's illustrations have been reproduced in three books and numerous portfolios, and with Yoko Ono's influence the volume of his artwork increased in the years before his death. Yoko has preserved much of this work and has released limited numbers of John's drawings through the years. The simplicity of this self-portrait of a bearded Lennon wearing his famous round glasses is its strong point, its intensity visible in its few lines, much as the minimalist "Imagine" album was his strongest musical statement. The drawing is on an 8" x 9 ½" sheet of paper that has the Apple logo in the upper left-hand corner. Lennon's signature at the bottom rates a near-perfect 10. The paper itself is nearly flawless except for two light fold marks and is matted on cardboard, on the back of which is a bit of blank verse written by hand which begins, "We always are what our situation tells us" and speaks of "youth revolts," "fall of British Isles," and "total discretion of government, society, habitation and residence." While not a certainty, it appears these lines may well have been written by Lennon, possibly as part of a song or as an idle Lennon musing. The illustration comes with authentication indicating it was purchased from Sotheby's. Any Beatle historian would surely find the verse alone to be worth hours of inspection. Added to the drawing, it makes this an item seem like a gift from Lennon himself.