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With Sarah, Phil, Ellen, Rose the dentist, and the granddaughter whose name I forget.

Robert Jones, NAPA

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Harpo's clown.  Not as easy to find online as it ought to be!

Denise Cat

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I did find it Robert although it was difficult to be sure if it was him who actually painted it. I came across a few but the information was a bit confusing. This is exquisite and I just loved it as soon as it appeared. It jumped out at me as a piece of fine art and I sensed it was his painting even before I read the information, It is everything I visualise in a clown, Harpo has painted the clown perfectly in my eyes. He has just got that lost, sad hollow look, masked behind the makeup, it's such a super painting. I wish I had been in the room when he was painting it. Thank you very much Robert.

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by Denise Cat

With Sarah, Phil, Ellen, Rose the dentist, and the granddaughter whose name I forget.

Robert Jones, NAPA

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I know, Denise, there's a lot online which is ABOUT Harpo, but not by him.  I would have loved to have met him: he was, by all accounts, a gentle, kind man; a great musician; a peerless performer.  His autobiography is one of the humblest (and not in a Donald Trump sense) that you'll ever read; plus - he was just about the only man who could have made the hard-as-nails Groucho cry at his funeral.  That's no criticism of Groucho - if these lads hadn't been tough, they'd never have survived the grinding poverty of their early lives.  He chose not to go on living with severe pain and stunted energy and enthusiasm, and so went for extremely riskly heart surgery, back in 1964 - it didn't work out, but a tired and worn-out Harpo wouldn't have been Harpo: I wish he, and Chico and Groucho (not to mention Zeppo) could have lived forever.   And I'd have the Great Schnozzola, Jimmy Durante, in my list of immortals too.  Plus, a seat for Joe E. Brown, Buster Keaton, Laurel and Hardy (a big seat for Ollie), and of course Charlie Chaplin.  They all brought joy to the world, when so many are so very good at sucking all joy out of it. 

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by Robert Jones, NAPA

Denise Cat

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I am a fan of all you have mentioned and they don't make film stars like that anymore. I still enjoy watching all the silver screen has to over. Even the silent films are quality. I recently watched Laurel and Hardy and Charlie Chaplin. Hilarious and so professional at their craft.

Ellen Mooney

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I’ve always found clowns a bit scary, but Harpo’s clown is deeply moving in a dark sort of way……if you know what I mean. The bright makeup hides that sadness underneath. 
With Sarah, Phil, Ellen, Rose the dentist, and the granddaughter whose name I forget.

Robert Jones, NAPA

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Harpo was a deeply sensitive man - go read about him, the more you read, the more you'll love.  What he wasn't was in any way sad - but he certainly tapped into something with this portrait: I've loved it from the first moment I saw it. 

Denise Cat

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I get that from his portrait, sensitivity, I definitely see that. Of course, my favourite books are autobiographies, I would like to read about him and as soon as I saw his work, I thought, I would like to know more about you. Obviously was a man of many talents.
With Sarah, Phil, Ellen, Rose the dentist, and the granddaughter whose name I forget.

Robert Jones, NAPA

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Harpo Speaks! - written with a ghost writer, but still good: Rowland Barber just sat with him and recorded his recollections, then shaped them (very well indeed) into a narrative.  And recently published, Speaking of Harpo, by his late wife, again in conversation with another writer - I've ordered that, but have yet to receive it.  There are many memories of Harpo, in so many books - I know I've said this before, but Lord, I wish he could be re-born!  My favourite comic will always be the great Groucho, but Groucho didn't have the human warmth or spontaneity of Harpo (Adolf) Marx.  Arthur Marx, Groucho's son, opined that Harpo was not the intellectual that Groucho was: I'm sure that's right - Harpo listened more than he spoke; but Harpo had more joy in his life than Groucho ever had, and conveyed it to the rest of us.  All you have to be is receptive.