Images(4)

Portrait of Jack Butler

Object number2017.65.4

Artist Ron Mahoney

OriginFrance

MediumPencil; Paint; Paperboard; Adhesive; Ink

Credit LineGift of Arthur Joseph Rooney, Jr.

DescriptionBlack and white pencil drawing on rectangular white paperboard. Waist-length portrait of man in three-quarter view facing slightly proper right. Figure is leaning forward resting his proper right elbow on his bent proper right leg. Figure wears Pittsburgh Steelers football uniform with player number on chest. Figure is smiling and wears a ring on his proper left ring finger. Painted gradient white to dark gray background, top to bottom. White border around drawn image.DimensionsHeight x Width x Depth: 20 × 16 × 0.063 in. (50.8 × 40.6 × 0.2 cm)
SignedArtist signature in pencil in bottom left corner margin "Ron Mahoney".
InscriptionsFigure has white and gray "80" on chest.

Text in bottom right corner "JACK BUTLER / Pittsburgh Steelers / All-Pro Defensive Back".
MarksReverse has repeated black text "ARCHES".

Reverse has white label in top right corner with black printed text "ARCHES / ART BOARD / 16 X 20 / ACID FREE / Made in France / ARCHES / 199-7100 / [barcode] / 0 30674 17241 3".
Historical NotesMore than 30 years ago, Art Rooney, Jr. and his wife Kay visited the Circle Art Gallery in San Diego, California. By the time they left, a new passion had been born. Unable to buy a seascape that had sold while they shopped, Rooney purchased a portrait instead. Painted by Merv Corning, the work featured Cincinnati Bengals’ wide receiver Isaac Curtis, a player Rooney admired. Over the next several years Rooney returned to the gallery while in San Diego on scouting trips or at Steelers’ games and bought more of Corning’s art. Eventually Corning called him, beginning a friendship and artistic partnership that lasted until the artist passed away in 2006. Rooney gradually transitioned from a buyer of art, to commissioning specific pieces. He began to collect what he knew and loved – paintings that depicted members of the great Steelers’ teams of the 1970s. Rooney had scouted many of these players and had come to know and respect them as athletes, but also as men. Over time Art Rooney’s collection has broadened to include pieces by two other artists and to represent his life, his work, and the special relationships he developed through football. Label TextArt Rooney, Jr. came to know Butler well off the field. They pitched hay together one summer before training camp started at Shamrock Farms, The Chief’s horse farm in Ligonier. After Butler’s playing days, the two worked closely, Butler advising the team as director of the scouting company BLESTO and Rooney as director of player personnel.

Related person John Bradshaw Butler (1927 - 2013)

Collector Arthur Joseph Rooney Jr.

Related institution Pittsburgh Steelers

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