VERTES MARCEL: (1895-1961) French costume Designer of Hungarian-Jewish origins. Vertes won two Academy Awards for ...

VERTES MARCEL: (1895-1961) French costume Designer of Hungarian-Jewish origins. Vertes won two Academy Awards for Art Direction and Costume Design on the 1952 film Moulin Rouge. Well remembered for his mural works in the Carlyle Hotel and Waldorf Astoria in New York. A very attractive bold black ink drawing by Vertes, to an 8.5 x 10.5 (21,5 x 27 cm) page removed from an autograph album, being a woman seated and drawing herself a sign stating `A bord de l´Andrea Doria´ in French (''On board the Andrea Doria''). Above the lady´s head Vertes inscribes the drawing `To Madame Chaliapin´. Signed `Vertes´ at the base, adding the date in his hand, May 1956. The present autograph was obtained by Marina Chaliapin during her cruise trip on board the Andre Doria in May 1956. Only two months later, on 26th July 1956, the Andrea Doria sunk after a collision near Nantucket Island. Small overall minor age toning to edges, otherwise VG The SS Andrea Doria was an Italian ocean liner, the largest, fastest and safest Italian ship of all times, an icon of national Pride. Its first Genoa-New York trip took place in 1953. On July 1956, the Andrea Doria sunk after suffering a collision with the Stockholm, a passenger liner of the Swedish American liner. Most passengers were rescued and 46 died. Provenance: The present page originates from the personal autograph album of Marina Chaliapin (1912-2009), the daughter of Russian opera singer Feodor Chaliapin (1873-1938), widely regarded as one of the finest bass singers of the 20th century, and his mistress Marina Petsold (1882-1964) who became the singer's second wife in 1927. Chaliapin's daughter was married to Luigi Freddi (1895-1977) the Italian journalist and politician who edited the journal Il Popolo d'Italia and who was also hugely influential in Italian political cinema in the second half of the 1930s and beginning of the 1940s