garboebayBorn in Stockholm, Sweden in 1905, Greta Garbo quickly became so famous that MGM Studio billed her only as "Garbo." She may have thus been the first "mononymous" celebrity.

I have never found any evidence to indicate that she or George Quaintance ever crossed paths, but they were of similar ages and they were both in Hollywood at roughly the same time, so it's not out of the question.

floatingheadsThe painting shown above has no title but it certainly appears to be Garbo. I have long had a hi-res image of it in my archives, but with nothing to indicate where it came from. Garbo is never mentioned or pictured in any of Quaintance's scrapbooks. The style is similar to several of his other works of the late 1930s, depicting detached heads of women and androgynous men floating in water, their hair spread out around them, surrounded by floating flowers and lily pads.

The Garbo painting appeared on eBay on Jan. 9 of this year, listed as "George Quaintance Greta Garbo Magazine Fine Art Original Art Signed 1938." It was offered for $900 and was sold to a single bidder who waited until the final 6 seconds of the auction to bid.

garbokfThe sparse description read only "18x14 inch original Gouache on board. Unfortunately there is nothing on the back to help direct to any usage."

I wrote to the seller, hoping to obtain more information and curious about the word "magazine" in the listing. Here's the seller's reply: "This work comes from Illustration House in Manhattan. It's been in the inventory for at least a decade that I know of."

That decade was not kind to the painting. My photo of it (at left) shows a solid, dense black background whereas the photo on eBay shows a compromised black background, with what appear to be fading and water stains. Both images are shown here for comparison. Quaintance's enigmatic vertical signature appears just above the date.

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