Study for The Prince of the Blues, for Little Willie John

Very soon after settling into an apartment in the Lower East Side with his wife, Dora, and her twin daughters in 1963, Russell FitzGerald felt oppressed by domesticity and in response, “surrounded himself with Black men, and painted perhaps his most powerful works,” in Dora’s estimation. He pursued many men, particularly jazz musicians, drinking and hooking up with them; he was chasing an idea of romantic love but settled for whatever he received. His immersion into Black men and music in New York in the 1960s inspired his most prolific period, including a suite of five large allegorical “altarpieces,” of which only drawings survive, such as The Prince of the Blues, for Little Willie John.
-Jon Davies, 2024