Images(4)

Portrait of Billy Conn

Object number2017.65.17

Artist Mervin Allen Corning (1926 - 2006)

MediumWatercolor paint; Paper; Pencil

Credit LineGift of Arthur Joseph Rooney, Jr.

DescriptionWatercolor painting on rectangular heavy white textured paper of a collecting card. Rounded rectangular painted area depicts image of male boxer in knee-length three-quarter view facing slightly proper right with gaze directly at the viewer. Figure is bare-chested with dark blue boxing shorts and holds hands up in fighting position, figure wears dark blue boxing gloves. Background is boxing ring with thin red border, thicker blue border, and mottled off-white/gray margins. One green three-leaf clover in each corner. White paper margins surround the painted area. Reverse is white undecorated paper.DimensionsHeight x Width x Depth: 19.75 × 15.375 × 0.063 in. (50.2 × 39.1 × 0.2 cm)
SignedArtist signature in the bottom right corner of the painted area “M Corning”.
InscriptionsDark blue painted text surrounding the figure’s head “BILLY CONN / 19 39 / WORLD CHAMPION”.

White painted text to the left of the boxer’s waist “LIGHTHEAVYWEIGHT”.

Below figure is dark blue painted text “ROONEY-McGINLEY BOXING CLUB”.

Painted text on figure’s proper left boxing glove wrist “…GER” and on figure’s proper left shorts leg “NEW YORK…”

Bottom left corner of paper has handwritten text in pencil "Giclee - Trim 21 x 16 IMAGE - 18 x 13".
MarksBelow figure is white text “© MURRAY CARDS”.

Reverse has imprinted maker's mark in the bottom right corner, the text is illegible, but the mark includes an infiniti symbol.
Historical NotesWatercolor of Billy Conn commissioned by Art Rooney, Jr. More 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 TextThough artist Merv Corning and Art Rooney, Jr. became close friends, they never met face to face. They talked often on the phone and Rooney corresponded by postcard and letter. His notes led Corning to create “postcard” art, for printing on thick cards that looked like trading cards, and corresponding “posters” of those images. Rooney used these cards to write to Merv and also for notes to players, family, and friends. Many are trademarked “Murray Cards” on the bottom, a private joke between the two men that referenced Maggie Murray (Rooney), Art’s grandmother.

Related person William David Conn (1917 - 1993)

Collector Arthur Joseph Rooney Jr.

Related institution Rooney-McGinley Boxing Club

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