Portrait of Jack Butler
Object number2017.65.5
Artist
Ron Mahoney
MediumPencil; Paint; Paperboard; Adhesive; Ink
Credit LineGift of Arthur Joseph Rooney, Jr.
DescriptionBlack and white pencil drawing of a football player on rectangular white paperboard. Male football player running with football in hands and proper left leg bent. Figure is in full-length three-quarter view facing slightly proper right. Figure wears Pittsburgh Steelers football uniform with player number on chest. Left side has drawn and painted, from top to bottom, crowd, football team, and football field. White margins surrounding artwork image. Pencil line drawn down left edge. Text at bottom center has player information. Artist signature in pencil in bottom left corner margin. Reverse is white and has repeated gray maker text. Reverse has white maker label in bottom left corner with black printed text and barcode.DimensionsHeight x Width x Depth: 20 × 16.125 × 0.063 in. (50.8 × 41 × 0.2 cm)SignedArtist signature in pencil in bottom left corner margin "Ron Mahoney".
InscriptionsFigure has white and dark gray "80" on chest.
Text at bottom center "JACK BUTLER / Pittsburgh Steelers / All-Pro Defensive Back".
MarksReverse has repeated dark gray text "CANSON".
Reverse has white label in bottom left corner with black printed text "ART BOARD 20 X 30 / ... / CANSON / ACID FREE / 199-7116 / [barcode] / 0 30674 17372 4".
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
On View
Not on view
Ron Mahoney
Ron Mahoney
Mervin Allen Corning
