1883 Pansies and Books and Birthday Wishes Trompe l’Oeil Oil on Board special basket but everything about it suggests

but everything about it suggests his work to me--in which case I am selling it as quite a bargain price

and charcoal

I have a feeling the rudder beside him was the maker's proudest accomplishment

scholar & one-time assistant to Kerouac’s former wife Edie Kerouac Parker

His head measures 2" across

1883 Pansies and Books and Birthday Wishes Trompe l’Oeil Oil on Board special basket but everything about it suggestsIve been drawn like a magnet lately to paintings with solid black grounds so satisfyingly graphic, and amplifying the sense of significance and symbolic weight to the subjects portrayed. And I love any sort of troupe loeil, especially with books in it! This one appears to have been painted as a present, marking the occasion of the recipients birthday on an April 8. 1883. Curiously, the painted text on that page of the book seems first to have read