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Tony Bennett Paints Portrait of Louis Armstrong to Benefit Corona Museum

By DNAinfo Staff on February 9, 2012 10:19am

Singer Tony Bennett recently painted this portrait of the late trumpeter Louis Armstrong for an auction to benefit the museum in the Queens house where Armstrong lived.
Singer Tony Bennett recently painted this portrait of the late trumpeter Louis Armstrong for an auction to benefit the museum in the Queens house where Armstrong lived.
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DNAinfo/Nick Hirshon

CORONA — The wood-paneled den where Louis Armstrong relaxed between grueling tours still looks like it did when he lived in Queens, down to the oil painting that singer Tony Bennett created for the jazz legend as an expression of gratitude.

Bennett, who also is from Queens, recently created a second oil painting that recalls the world-renowned trumpeter and could help ensure that Satchmo's legacy in Corona continues for generations to come.

The museum in the 107th Street home where Armstrong lived is auctioning off Bennett's second painting to raise funds for historic tours, concerts and programs. The bid on the portrait had reached $10,000 as of Wednesday afternoon on the website Charitybuzz, and museum officials expect the price to surge even higher before the auction ends Feb. 29.

Armstrong, who died in 1971, was a "dear friend" who "taught us all how to sing," Bennett said in a statement to Charitybuzz.

"He is a subject I love to capture on canvas," Bennett added.

Bennett, who was born in Astoria, had great respect for Armstrong, who settled with his wife Lucille in Corona in 1943.

Museum director Michael Cogswell said the two famous musicians shared similar personalities.

"Louis was a generous person, was famously generous, and Tony is walking in Louis's footsteps," Cogswell said. "Tony is a beautiful man. He's very generous. He adores Louis Armstrong. He has said many times that Louis Armstrong was his inspiration as a vocalist."

The 18-by-24-inch portrait now on the auction block shows Armstrong playing a gold-plated Selmer trumpet and includes Bennett's signature with his real name, Benedetto, in the lower-right corner.

Bennett's first painting, finished in 1970, depicts only Armstrong's face.

It so impressed the affable Satchmo that he hung it opposite his desk and shelf of records.

"Man, you out-Rembrandted Rembrandt!" Armstrong reportedly remarked to Bennett upon seeing the portrait.

Cogswell said he likes both paintings, but he admitted the second portrait has "more excitement," since it shows Armstrong playing music.

Visitors to the den where the first painting hangs can hear a recording in which Armstrong jokes about Bennett signing the painting with his given name. Bennett's second portrait is displayed in what had been the Armstrong family first-floor rec room, where display cases hold some of Armstrong's records, his trumpet and a handkerchief he once used at a Long Island concert.

Bennett, 85, remains active in his home borough. He founded the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Long Island City in 2001 in honor of another late friend. As the school prepared to move into its new home in Astoria in 2009, Bennett gave an update to the audience at Queens Borough President Helen Marshall's State of the Borough address at Queens College in Flushing.