The Blacksmith

Page 5 Page 6

Page 7


A San Jose artist/restorer touches up The Blacksmith, a large painting by Cooper depicting a blacksmith shop belonging to Amos Williams on Santa Clara Street circa 1900. Geoffrey Dunn, in his spendid article A Painter Comes Home (Metro), reports that Cooper used to visit this shop, sitting on a nail keg, socializing and sketching. The painting is reported to be stored at the San Jose Historical Museum.



The Suicide

A smiling restorer stands in front of A.D.M.'s "The Suicide."

An article in the Mercury News, by Bill Strobel, goes with picture. "The semi-nude beauty reclining on a bed with a dark-haired male standing nearby, is the central figure in a painting called "The Suicide."

"According to the legend that accompanies the painting, the artwork tells the story of "one of the sad, bitter experiences from the passionate life of Paris that causes the hearts of more calm and even lives to cease to beat and their minds to suffer with vain regrets."

"It purports to tell the story of a young French officer who attends a masked ball in Paris, meets a beautiful young woman and one thing leads to another. In her boudoir, while she sleeps, he discovers a birthmark he hadn't noticed earlier -- the birthmark of his younger sister whom he had not seen since she was a young child."

"Presumably, the young officer did the only honorable thing. He jumped out the window of the young woman's bedroom."

Lesson learned: Keep in touch with your relatives - and know what they look like - before you go dashing off to the single bars on El Dorado St.

The painting was displayed at Hawaiian Gardens for years.


Page 5 Page 6

Page 7