The Marx Brothers

$265.00

9 in stock

Only thirty-five (35) prints of THE MARX BROTHERS by Drew Friedman were produced for this 2012 edition. Each print is signed in the lower right, hand-titled in the center, and numbered in the lower left (all beneath the image).

The image area is about 17″ high x 12-1/2″ wide on an untrimmed 22″ x 17″ sheet. Paper, ink, and production specifications, as well as shipping details, are available on our PRINT SPECS page.

Prices will increase for subsequent prints as the edition depletes. Purchase price does not include shipping costs, which are calculated during checkout.

Category:

Description

Drew Friedman has twice paid artistic homage to zinger master Groucho Marx (see here and here). Groucho has now been enshrined in a portrait with his madcap brothers Chico and Harpo. The trio is depicted as they looked in 1935 while filming A Night at the Opera, their first film for MGM. (Younger brother Zeppo had retired from the act in 1933.)

Opera was a turning point for the Marxes. Their early pictures for Paramount, which evolved from their vaudeville routines, relied heavily on their trademark slapstick anarchy, scattershot insults, and non-stop quips. At MGM, the brothers were recast with greater dimension, their antics restrained, their comic attacks aimed chiefly at villains (and comedic foil Margaret Dumont). MGM insisted on strong story structure, interweaving comedy with romantic subplots and spectacular musical numbers. Producer Irving Thalberg believed the brothers could get “twice the box office with half the laughs,” a strategy that paid off when A Night at the Opera became a huge hit. In 1993 the film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. The illustration was commissioned for The Art of the Marx Brothers, edited by Daniel Kinske and to be published by Fantagraphics in 2014.