A remarkable collection of rare sketches hand-drawn by John Lennon has gone on public display at the Liverpool Beatles Museum on Mathew Street, offering music and art enthusiasts an intimate glimpse into the creative mind of the icon during the height of Beatlemania.
The pop-art-style illustrations were originally created in the mid-1960s as part of a collaborative project between John Lennon and the American filmmaker Stephen Verona.
The collection of 240 individual drawings, or animation cells, was meticulously crafted to form an animated short film for the classic Beatles track I Feel Fine.
Music historians widely recognise the resulting piece as one of the very first rock music videos ever produced.
The Manhattan Kitchen Table Collaboration
The origins of the unique visual art piece date back to a chance encounter in a London nightclub, where Stephen Verona met John Lennon while working on a commercial for the Ford Motor Company.
After an immediate creative connection, the pair began sketching ideas onto a paper tablecloth, eventually moving the project to the kitchen table of Verona’s Manhattan apartment.
Using bright felt-tip markers, the duo spent days bringing the lyrics of I Feel Fine to life.
The completed two-minute animation went on to receive critical acclaim, winning the prestigious CINE Golden Eagle Award and screening at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
While the complete set of 240 cells was sold as a single lot at Christie’s auction house in 2000 for $58,750, the collection was subsequently broken up and scattered amongst international buyers over the years.
Reclaiming Beatles History
The ten distinct drawings currently featured in the Mathew Street exhibition were tracked down and purchased at a London auction house by Joseph Robert O’Donnell, a 29-year-old collector and dealer from Tynemouth.
Each of the recovered pieces corresponds to a specific word or phrase from the legendary track, allowing the sequential artwork to spell out complete lyrics, including the segments reading “Baby Says She’s Mine” and “In Love with Her”.
Before looking to eventually sell the historical drawings, Mr O’Donnell chose to loan them directly to the Liverpool Beatles Museum, ensuring that fans from around the world have the opportunity to see the cohesive sequence reunited in the childhood home city of the band.
Museum curators note that the visual art project provided John Lennon with a vital creative escape during a turbulent and highly pressured era of global success.
The original film reel remains safely preserved in the permanent archive of the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, whilst the newly acquired physical cells will remain available for public viewing in the Liverpool Beatles Museum for several months
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